Award-winning production of An Inspector Calls returns to The Lowry

Jan 26 2012 Flintshire Chronicle

Direct from its triumphant success in the West End last year, Stephen Daldry’s award-winning production of JB Priestley’s classic thriller An Inspector Calls returns to The Lowry with a new cast of well-known faces from stage and screen.

Inspector Goole will be played by Tom Mannion, whose extensive television credits include popular shows Spooks, Missing, Taggart, The Bill and Midsomer Murders.

Geoff Leesley, who has featured in television shows including Law and Order UK, Little Britain, Wire in the Blood and Coronation Street will take the role of Mr Birling.

Director Stephen Daldry, now triple Oscar-nominated for his films The Reader (starring Kate Winslett, Ralph Fiennes), The Hours (starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore) and Billy Elliot (starring Jamie Bell), achieved his first major directorial success in 1992 when his visionary revival of An Inspector Calls opened at the National Theatre to outstanding critical acclaim.

Featuring Ian MacNeil’s designs and a score by Oscar-winning composer Stephen Warbeck (Shakespeare in Love), the production has received 19 major international awards.

Written at the end of the Second World War and set before the First, this is a compelling and haunting thriller.

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.

An Inspector Calls can be seen at The Lowry from January 31-February 4. Call 0843 2086005 or visit www.thelowry.com.