The Maid's Tale

My name is Janine O’Callaghan and I’m playing the part of Edna in Inspector Calls. It’s only my second time on stage and must say this is a totally different experience to my first which was Panto.

Although ‘Edna’ has a small part she is very symbolic and represents the anonymous people that the Inspector talks about in his final speech. Edna and Eva represent women, who suffer at the hands of poverty and neglect and both characters are the victims of the unjust nature of the social system. To those better than them they are invisible.

Inspector Goole

I’ve enjoyed watching all the cast perform as they are all very different and have HUGE!!! scripts to learn. I love listening to Peta Maidman’s voice (Mrs Birling) and watching Peter Musto (Mr Birling) so natural and charismatic.  It’s also been very interesting seeing Neil Maidman (Director) bring this together, his ideas and the set are great and really effective.

JB Priestley

As an experience this has been great but different and I have realised that this in comparison to Panto is a very different discipline..........I have a lot to learn I think!!!! 

What Does Gerald Bring to the Table?

What to talk about without giving out spoilers? The butler did it, well house maid anyway. Alright we all did it ……………..or did we? Did anyone do it?

Gareth Baskerville - rehearsing the role of Gerald Croft

How do I feel about playing Gerald? Well, first things first, the language used in An Inspector Calls is definitely not in my normal day to day vocabulary. So to anyone coming to watch I apologise for any lapses. I am learning the lines but I am finding it very difficult. Especially as I’ve never been very keen on doing it. Even twenty five plus years of learning lines doesn’t make it any easier. So I have to knuckle down and make sure I do. Also I’m not a person that likes to deal with or dwell on the darker side of human nature, or to think too much when watching a play. I much prefer to laugh during my entertainment and there ain’t many gags in this one.

Gerald is a hypocrite in this tale of the fall of Victorian middle class moral values. His part in all of this is a small one. But, his part shows the greatest swing and reversal of moralities. Born into an upper class family, he is bred with their beliefs and lives by them……..when it suits him. His early simpering towards Mr Birling is testament to this – he wishes to marry his daughter. Then we believe at the time of his ‘tale’ that he did feel for the unfortunate Eva/Daisy and perhaps recognise that he sympathises with the Inspector's views. But his return to the Middle/Upper class views at the end is hideous and shows his true character.

The more I rehearse this part, the less I like the character. It makes me feel - like a politician – dirty. The play challenges views and preconceptions. It may well be set in Victorian times where people’s views were perhaps a little more blunt, but the story still holds today and holds against myriad types of oppression. As society moves on, so must we.

Gareth Baskerville

'I Consider I Did My Duty'......A Woman of Principle?

Hello there – I am Peta Maidman and I will be playing Sybil Birling in Blackwood Little Theatre's production of 'An Inspector Calls'. It’s the second time I’ve played this part (not that I remembered many lines to begin with!) and I think she is a wonderful character to portray. Out of all of the characters you will meet in the play, she is the only one who unwaveringly believes that she has done the right thing - as she tells the Inspector, “I consider I did my duty”.

Peta Maidman rehearsing the role of Mrs Birling

Mrs Birling is very much a product of her time and breeding where values were so very entrenched and issues were black and white, right or wrong and there was no middle ground. It’s a concept which can be quite hard to understand in our modern day so when taking on the role of Mrs Birling, it’s important not to judge her for her opinions as they are deeply and sincerely held. My job is to play her as she is and leave the judgement to the Inspector - and the audience. In some ways, it’s admirable to have principles that you adhere to, no matter what, yet her inflexibility regarding her actions remains unshakeable, even when she realises Eric’s involvement. She declares that she is “absolutely ashamed” of him and yet previously, in reply to Eric’s outburst, we hear her say, in some distress, “Eric, I didn’t know, I didn’t understand.” Perhaps this is an indication of how deeply set her true feelings are, propriety being everything to someone in her position so that even when her son is the transgressor, she cannot go against her nature. There is some evidence of this, too, in her relationship with Sheila. At the beginning of the play, in response to Sheila calling Eric “squiffy”, Mrs Birling says “What an expression, Sheila! Really, the things you girls pick up these days.” Sheila’s more “modern” attitude, especially as we see it develop during the course of the play is quite alien to Mrs Birling’s nature and there lies the inherent difference between the two – the classic generation gap, perhaps?

 Even as a mother, she cannot empathise with Eva Smith or perhaps that ought to be “will not” empathise since Eva had made the terrible error of calling herself “Mrs Birling” at the interview with the committee of the Brumley Women’s Charity Organisation and the thought that a girl of “that sort” could have any decent feelings or morals seems to have enraged Mrs Birling even more causing her to recommend refusal of the girl’s application. The revelations that the Inspector wasn’t real and that there had been no suicide admitted to hospital that day were just confirmation of her deep-rooted beliefs all along: people had to behave in a certain manner, the Inspector spoke rudely to her and Mr Birling “quite extraordinary”, Eva Smith had given herself “ridiculous airs … claiming fine feelings” so these two couldn’t possibly be real.

The cast rehearsing for An Inspector Calls

This is a part that provides a complex character to present to an audience. It is unlikely to be a character with whom one can sympathise but, if I have done my job properly, perhaps you will understand her motives a bit better. I sincerely hope you will all enjoy the play as much as I have enjoyed participating in it.