'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.