Stephen Daldry’s 1992 National Theatre production of JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls is to return to London this autumn for an eight-week season at the Novello theatre from 22 September to 14 November.
The acclaimed director of The Reader and Billy Elliot will re-direct the production for its return to the capital. Daldry won the 1993 Best Director Laurence Olivier Award for his work on the production, while the show also picked up two further awards including Best Set Designer for Ian MacNeil.
Premiered at the National’s Lyttelton theatre in 1992, An Inspector Calls subsequently transferred to the West End’s Aldwych theatre and then to Broadway, where it won four Tony Awards. It then returned to the West End in 1995 and remained until May 2002, occupying the Garrick and Playhouse theatres. An Inspector Calls now returns to London once more after seven years away, during which time the production has toured the UK and internationally.
Priestley’s thriller was written at the end of the Second World War but set before the first. The story begins when the mysterious Inspector Goole calls unexpectedly on the prosperous Birling family home. Their peaceful family dinner party is shattered by his investigations into the death of a young woman.
Daldry’s production will be the second Priestley play to be seen in London this year. Time And The Conways is currently running at the National Theatre, directed by Rupert Goold.
The Novello theatre currently hosts the Broadway musical Spring Awakening, which is to close on 30 May following a critically acclaimed but under-sold run. It had been booking to 31 October. As yet no productions have been confirmed for the Novello over the summer months.
CB