Theatre reviews: An Inspector Calls | The Bodyguard

It may have been conceived as a response to the aggressive individualism in 1980s Britain, but many of the points made in Stephen Daldry’s mighty 1992 production of An Inspector Calls still resonate today, writes Joyce McMillan

An Inspector Calls, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh ****

The Bodyguard, King’s Theatre, Glasgow ***

This week, Scottish theatre plays host to two very familiar touring shows, from the glittering back-catalogue of the UK main-stage theatre industry; yet between them, they raise huge questions about what theatre is for, and what commercial producers can achieve, under all the pressures of recent years.

An Inspector Calls PIC: Mark Douet

Stephen Daldry’s mighty 1992 production of An Inspector Calls, first created for the National Theatre in London, is now the most performed theatrical revival in history, seen by more by five million people worldwide. A staple of school curriculums, JB Priestley’s 1945 play famously tells the story of a mysterious police inspector who, one night in 1912, comes to interview the well-to-do and self-satisfied Birling family, in a northern industrial town, about a young working-class woman who has died in the local hospital after swallowing disinfectant.

The play’s didactic aim is to blow the ideology of bourgeois individualism out of the water by demonstrating how each of the Birlings has contributed – cruelly or thoughtlessly – to the young woman’s fate. And Daldry’s acclaimed production, conceived as a response to a new age of aggressive individualism in 1980s Britain, uses Ian MacNeil’s magnificent set – a dream-like version of the Birling house, in a landscape shattered by Second World War bombing – to take the audience back to 1945, when the play was written. There, they witness both the horror of fire and blood that Inspector Goole predicts; and the fierce determination of those who tried to build a more compassionate world, in the postwar era.

The play therefore has some ferocious and timely political points to make; and there are a few audible gasps, as the Festival Theatre audience instantly recognises the targets of Priestley’s searing assault on the attitudes of the privileged, sadly as familiar and entrenched today as in 1945 or 1992.

The production, though, also revels in the spooky and supernatural elements of Priestley’s story, enjoying the spectacular potential of McNeil’s set; and there is always Liam Brennan’s angry and urgent performance as Inspector Goole to draw us back to the play’s central theme. “He inspected us, all right,” says young Sheila Birling in the final act, as her parents and smug fiancé celebrate the possibility that Goole was not a “real” policeman at all; and if UK theatre audiences are paying attention to this commanding production of Priestley’s classic, they will, by the end, feel pretty well inspected themselves.

The Bodyguard, by contrast, is the purest fantasy entertainment, full of glamour, big soul ballads, and in-your-face instant eroticism. The stage musical is based on the smash-hit film starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner, first seen – like Daldry’s An Inspector Calls – in 1992; but here, the age of the individual is celebrated, as superstar singer Rachel Marron is threatened by a psychopathic stalker, and professional bodyguard Frank Farmer steps up to protect her, all strength, competence and manly silence about his troubled inner life.

It’s all good old-fashioned romantic hokum, in other words, with an added dash of celebrity-culture fantasy; and lovely Melody Thornton, stepping up to the leading role for the first time, perhaps has a way to go before she can match the stunning poise and presence of Alexandra Burke, who made this role her own over several years. Yet the lights dazzle, the costumes are fabulous, the cast deliver the story with terrific energy; and the classic Whitney Houston songs roll on, from I Wanna Dance With Somebody to I Will Always Love You, carrying the audience along on a tide of razzle-dazzle, to a suitably bittersweet ending.

An Inspector Calls is at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, until 4 February, and the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 23-27 May. The Bodyguard is at the King’s Theatre, Glasgow until 4 February, the Playhouse, Edinburgh, 20-25 February, and His Majesty’s, Aberdeen, 2-6 May.