Gripping Detective Thriller

Is Next For Sherman Players

SHERMAN — When the Royal National Theatre’s Lawrence Olivier Award winning revival of An Inspector Calls transferred to Broadway in 1994 the play won eight Drama Desk Awards and five Tony Awards including the Tony for Best Revival. The Sherman Players will present the work as its next offering, opening September 9.

J. B. Priestley’s play is considered to be one of his best known works for the stage and one of the classics of mid-20th Century English theatre. It is a three-act drama, which takes place on a single night in 1912, and focuses on the prosperous middle-class Birling family, who live in a comfortable home in Brumley, “an industrial city in the north Midlands.”

The family is visited by a man calling himself Inspector Goole, who questions the family about the suicide of a young working-class woman, Eva Smith (also known as Daisy Renton). During the course of his questioning, all members of the family are implicated lightly or deeply in the girl’s undoing.  While holding its audience with the gripping tension of a detective thriller, it is also a philosophical play about social conscience and the crumbling of middle class values.

At the helm of Sherman’s production of An Inspector Calls is Director Laura Gilbert, who has been stage managing at Sherman since 2006.  Her first stint onstage was at TheatreWorks in 1976 and more recently she appeared as Spike in TheatreWorks production of Talk Radio earlier this year.

An Inspector Calls will mark Ms Gilbert’s directorial debut.

“After reading the play, I loved the message and the lesson. I also loved the eerie way it was sent,” she said. “I feel sure that the very talented cast I have chosen will make An Inspector Calls a truly memorable and spellbinding evening in the theatre.”

Curtain will be Friday and Saturday nights at 8, with a Sunday matinee scheduled for September 18 at 2 pm.

Tickets for all shows are $20.

The Sherman Playhouse is at 5 Route 39 North in Sherman. Call 860-354-3622 or visit ShermanPlayers.org for reservations or additional information.