Stage Review - An Inspector Calls (Dukesbay Productions)
Stage Review - An Inspector Calls
Presented By: Dukesbay Productions - Tacoma, WA
Show Run: October 25 - November 10, 2024
Date Reviewed: Friday, October 25, 2024 (Opening Night)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
A morality play written by a socialist set to the backdrop of a classic drawing room drama. That is perhaps the briefest explanation for English playwright J.B. Priestley’s 1945 play An Inspector Calls. In the play, the upper middle-class Birling family’s celebratory dinner, in which their daughter Sheila has been asked by beau Gerald Croft, son of a rival business magnate, to marry him, is interrupted by a police inspector arriving at their door to question them about their involvement in the life of a woman who has been found dead after committing suicide earlier that day. It’s a play that feels like a murder mystery, though there’s no murder of course, and as Priestley’s story progresses, it becomes more clear that he’s using the forum to present the hypocrisies about the entitled class and about the idea of reputation vs. character. It’s a fascinating study in human behavior that Dukesbay Productions has chosen for their fall show, in a production directed by Jennifer York and running on stage in Tacoma through November 10.
When An Inspector Calls starts out, the audience meets the Birling family, mother Sybil, father Arthur, son Eric, and daughter Sheila, all sitting around the dining table, joined by Gerald Croft, son of Sir George and Lady Croft of Crofts Limited, a rival firm of Birling and Company, of which Arthur is the proprietor. The cause for the gathering is the celebration of the engagement between Gerald and Sheila, and the potential for a business merger that might result. As the meal progresses, each character’s personality comes out a bit more. Arthur is the pretentious businessman, keen on keeping his reputation intact and passing his wisdom down to his son, who is a rebellious heavy drinker, and to Gerald, the pinnacle of the future capitalist in the elder Birling’s eye. At one particular point in the evening, the doorbell rings, the Birling’s maid Edna opens the door where she is met by someone claiming to be an Inspector Goole, who’d like to question the family to learn more about a woman, Eva Smith, who had committed suicide earlier that day in a most gruesome way. Nobody in the family understands why they’re being questioned about a girl they have no obvious connection with, and why an inspector would be interrogating them for a suicide of all things, but nothing is ever what it seems, and whether or not the family has a connection to the dead girl or not is only part of the issue. There is a modern application to the story, of course, something Priestley himself could not have foretold. In a society with increased teen suicide, we sometimes ask what responsibility those who have interacted with the victim in certain ways have, how complicit are folks in a suicide based on their actions? This is something he investigates here, and is surely something to take away from it. But it’s how each character is fleshed out by Priestley in the process of the questioning that is the heart of what this story is about, how he dissects the entitled class, how he criticizes capitalism and the hypocrisies that are inherent in its power structure, and how certain folks value reputation above all. It’s a well constructed tale, and when done well, it’s a bit of a thinker, especially in the world we’re living in where unchecked capitalism is being questioned and challenged by the labor class on an almost daily basis.
That idea of how it is done is even a bit more complicated to explain than the story. In this regard, there’s some good news, and there’s some not so good, but since I’m a “good news first” person, I’ll start with that. The design of this show is stellar, and is everything I’d expect from a Jennifer York design. Her ability to capture a period of time on stage and thread that through an entire design is uncanny. Her set, constructed by Hector Juarez and Niclas Olson, is the best use of the Dukesbay space that I’ve seen. It’s a small bit of real estate, but Jen and her team have been able to capture a dining area, drawing room, foyer, and hallways, all by using strategically placed archways and through a creative layout on the stage. Capping off the design is an excellent use of crown moulding to frame the room, this touch giving the area a nice feeling of dimension and finiteness that is important and would be lacking otherwise. Jen has also surrounded herself with a creative team that is talented. Michelle Weingarden Bandes’ lighting is very good, the way she focuses a particular set piece, a door, a phone, or an actor during some period of exposition, or when she brightens the room when the group is speaking together, but then dims the lights when the recounting of a story takes a certain turn, certainly adds to the emotion and the tension of the storytelling. Costuming is another high point in this production. Jeffery Swiney-Weaver has outfitted the cast in dress that informs and supports each of the characters’ personalities. Gerald is in a well pressed tuxedo, Eric is formally disheveled, and Sybil is in a classic and period appropriate formal housedress, just to point out a few examples. On the sound side, Niclas Olson does a fine job here, though his underscore is a bit problematic. I understand what he’s trying to do here, when a point of tension is presented, music that sounds like it’s from a soap opera starts, but it’s so quiet that by the time it registers that music is, in fact, playing, the music stops. That happens throughout, and could be alleviated with a little more volume on the music, or even better making the music last a few seconds longer. There’s a sweet spot there that it just falls short of.
An Inspector Calls feels like it succeeds to the extent that its ensemble works together like a well oiled machine. And I really do like this cast, but from an ensemble perspective, I would have liked to see what they could do with a little more time to prepare. There are some excellent performances here. Big Anderson as daughter Sheila, perhaps the biggest voice of reason and the best hope for the future in the Birling family, is simply excellent. Her command of the character, her place in the story, her accent, everything is so well done. Most of this goes for Gunnar Johnson as Gerald Croft as well. His accent is spot on (credit across the board to dialect coach Marianna de Fazio), and he nails the mannerisms of Gerald’s social status, sort of aloof and a bit self-centered, but also extremely polite. There are times, though, when Gunnar’s acting feels a bit forced, his exaggerations too big for a space as small as the Dukesbay stage is. Otherwise, though, I like his Gerald, and as a pair he and Big exhibit a nice chemistry. The other Birling child, the rebellious Eric, is played by Ejay Amor in a performance that is, to date, my favorite from him. Ejay brings the right amount of emotion to his Eric, especially in Act 2 when he gets pushed in his interrogation by Inspector Goole. Ejay’s work outside of the spotlight is equally as good. Watching him when others are speaking, the slacking, careless nature of his character, is so obvious, even though he’s not the center of attention on stage. This trio, Big, Gunnar, and Ejay, along with Mark Peterson who plays Inspector Goole in a very strong performance, do so well, especially considering the challenges presented by Eloisa Cardona and Andrew Fry as parents Sybil and Arthur Birling. Eloisa does a fine job as Sybil, there are moments that are extremely good, and others when she stumbles a bit on her lines, but all and all I’d say she captures the essence of the character. Andrew’s performance on Friday created a few additional challenges, and not for lack of ability. I’m not sure if there’s a backstory here, but he spent much of the time on book, reading from the script. It’s not a stretch to say that this holds An Inspector Calls back, and prevents some very good performances from being even better. If acting is reacting, there’s a predictive element to that, knowing when the previous actor is finishing his line before jumping in with yours. When someone is searching for a place in the script, then reading the lines in a rote fashion, or when not using the script but clearly flipping through an internal index to find the right next piece of dialogue, it throws that reactive nature of acting on its head, hurts the flow of the show, and causes emotional punches to land with a resounding thud. An Inspector Calls is such a well written piece, and the other performances from this group so good, I’d love to see what would have happened if they had a week more of preparation.
On the plus side, and despite the challenges of the ensemble, Mark Peterson as Inspector Goole does a nice job herding everyone together and keeping them on task. His performance becomes more emotional as the play progresses and in turn, Mark appears to become more comfortable on stage. It’s a solid performance in a solid role. Rounding out the cast is Kareyana Rose Aguon as maid Edna. Kareyana doesn’t have a ton of stage time, but she manages the time she does have very well.
There are any number of plays with something to teach us, some with lessons that are hidden among the complex lines of dialogue or iambic pentameter, while others are right up front with what they’re trying to say. An Inspector Calls is of the latter ilk. Playwright J.B. Priestley’s story of an entitled family with ancillary connections to a suicide victim doesn’t just interrogate the suspects, it also examines capitalism, the hypocrisy of power, and reputation. The Dukesbay production’s design and some of the individual performances prove the potential that this play has, and with a little more time to percolate on the ensemble side, this play might just live up to it.
An Inspector Calls, from Dukesbay Productions, runs on stage in Tacoma through November 10. For more information, including ticket availability and purchase, visit https://dukesbay.org/.
Photo credit: Jason Ganwich
