Stephen Daldry’s award-laden production of J.B Priestley’s classic thriller, AN INSPECTOR
CALLS, returns for a major UK tour
Winning more awards than any other play in history, Stephen Dal dry’s epic West End and
Broadway production of J.B Priestley’s classic thriller AN INSPECTOR CALLS returns for a major UK tour this spring. Opening at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre on 30 January AN
INSPECTOR CALLS tours to seventeen theatres throughout the UK until 20 June 2009.
Now worldrenowned as one of Britain’s leading film Directors (Billy Elliot, The Hours), Stephen
Daldry is back in the spotlight with the launch of his new film, The Reader, for which he has just received a BAFTA nomination for Best Director and has won Kate Winslett the Golden Globe
Award for Best Supporting Actress. His smash hit musical production of Billy Elliot transferred to
Broadway last November, winning raptuous critical and public acclaim. Daldry’s first major directorial success - the show that ‘launched’ his career - was in 1992 when his visionary revival of AN INSPECTOR CALLS opened at the National Theatre to huge acclaim. Featuring inventive designs by Ian MacNeil, a sweeping score by Stephen Warbeck and atmospheric lighting by
Rick Fisher, the production (plus Daldry and his creative team) scooped three Olivier Awards, two Evening Standard Awards and a host of five-star reviews. The show was hailed as the definitive production of J B Priestley’s much-loved play.
Following its success at the NT, AN INSPECTOR CALLS transferred to the West End for two years, before heading off around the world. In 1993, the production transferred to Broadway, winning an unprecedented string of awards for a play, including four Tony Awards. Clocking up a total of 19 major international awards since opening, this production has played to audiences across Australia, the United States, Japan, Europe and Britain, including five major UK tours and a return West End season that successfully ra n for over eight years. Daldry’s AN
INSPECTOR CALLS has played c. 4750 performances to date and has been seen by over 2 million theatregoers worldwide.
Written at the end of the Second World War and set before the First, AN INSPECTOR CALLS is a brilliant ly compelling and haunting thriller by one of this country’s leading post-war dramatists.
An immensely popular play, Priestley’s masterpiece repeatedly features as a curriculum text for
GCSE English Literature, studied by pupils throughout the land. The story begins when the mysterious Inspector Goole calls unexpectedly on the prosperous Birling family home. Their peaceful dinner party is shattered by his investigations into the death of a young woman whom

each of them in turn has exploited. His startling revelations not only shatter the very foundations of their lives but challenge us all to examine our consciences. Daldry’s visionary production ingeniously unites the 1912 setting with the time it was written in 1945, transfering the play to a dramatic cobblestone war-torn wasteland, where the Edwardian Birling family home looms precariously, suspended on stilts.
For the 2009 UK tour, original National Theatre cast member Louis Hilyer returns to the production, this time playing the role of the Inspector (h aving played ‘Gerald’ at the NT alongside Kenneth Cranham’s Inspector). Hilyer is joined by Sandra Duncan as Mrs Birling,
Christopher Saul as Mr Birling, Alisdair Simpson as Gerald, Marianne Oldham as Sheila Birling,
Robin Whiting as Eric Birling and Diana Payne Myers as Edna. Directed by Stephen Daldry, AN
INSPECTOR CALLS is designed by Ian MacNeil, with lighting by Rick Fisher, music by Stephen
Warbeck and Associate Director Julian Webber. Originally produced by the National Theatre, the UK tour is produced by PW Productions Ltd and Kenneth H. Wax Ltd.
ENDS
LISTINGS
Performances: 5 th December 2008 to 18 th January 2009
Times vary. Contact the Box Office or visit the website www.ambassadortickets.com/miltonkeynes for further details.
Tickets: £17 - £26
Box Office: 0870 060 6652 (bkg fee)
Groups Hotline : 01908 547609
Access Booking: 0871 297 5477 (bkg fee)
Online Booking: www.ambassadortickets.com/miltonkeynes (bkg fee)
If you have any questions or require any further information please contact:
Becky Martin
Press & Communications Officer
Milton Keynes Theatre beckymartin@theambassadors.com
01908 547603 www.miltonkeynestheatre.com