BATS review - An Inspector Calls

The insecurities of a man who feels he is prematurely aging are rarely helped by reviewing a play he recalls being in a school production of over a decade ago.

That sense was hardly improved by the scores of St Richard's and Claverham school pupils in the audience to watch the play - although on the upside I guess I can't be that old if it is still on curriculum.

However, thanks to some good work from the BATS, my youthful enthusiasm for the piece was restored before the interval.

It was just a shame then the second-half left me longing for a mug of hot Bovril and an early night. It would be harsh to say it reminded me of said school play, but at times it was getting there.

To steal some clichd football parlance, it really was 'a game of two halves.'

Things began nicely as the scene was set in the dining room of the Birling family.

The appearance of the enigmatic inspector, investigating the death of a young woman, soon led the family to discover the error of their self-centered ways

After the break though, things started to go awry.

It would be unfair to give the amateur cast too much criticism on what was opening night in front of a far larger audience than normally associated with such shows.

But slip ups did start to appear more often than one has come to expect from the group. Cast members unintentionally talking over each other or repeating lines is never a good sign.

To their great credit the cast ploughed on and recovered the thread manfully. By the closing stages they had rediscovered enough of their confidence to give full justice to Priestley's powerful denouement.

Lawry Rhodes was all bluster and bravado as industrialist Arthur Birling and Meryl Beamont was perfectly believable as his cold-fish wife Sybil.

Amy Thompson gave perhaps the stand out performance of the evening as the character of Sheila Birling slowly discovered her social conscience, and the part of drunken black-sheep of the family, Eric, was well handled by John Brown.

Solid support came from Michael Turnbull, as Gerald, and Hannah Turnbull appeared briefly as family servant Edna.

In the key role of Inspector Goole, Derek Crawley was at times suitably mysterious and menacing.

'An Inspector Calls' wasn't a bad production by any means, you just felt with a bit more spit and polish it could have been something far better.

Judging from the enthusiastic applause many of them gave the cast, it did enough to be a more than useful educational tool for the school children present. If it went towards helping their studies or igniting an interest in theatre it must be considered a success.