Tacoma’s Dukesbay Theater is running a splendid production of “An Inspector Calls,” one of the best known works of British playwright J.B. Priestley. Directed by the well seasoned Jennifer York, the Dukesbay production is a well-crafted piece of theater art, laid out in the intimate space of Dukesbay Theater, in Tacoma’s Merlino Building. The small theater experience brings the audience right alongside the action, allowing every nuance of the performance to be witnessed, such as seeing the stage light gleam gemlike in the eyes of the actors.
Set in an upper middle-class home in pre-World War I England, the story exposes the social, political and psychological stew (often an unsavory stew) that bubbles and fumes just under the veneer of ordinary existence, which humans desperately seek to maintain. In this way, it hearkens to earlier works by the likes of the Scandinavian playwright Heinrik Ibsen.
While the lighting and the exquisite set lay the table for the unfolding drama, Dukesbay’s solid casting is the true feast of this production.
Starring as the mysterious Inspector Goole, Mark Peterson gives a commanding and attention-grabbing performance. What first seems like a drawing-room crime interrogation of the guilty party(s) gradually morphs into something more until the inspector begins to seem like a sort of gestalt conscience, revealing the summation of family or class guilt. (Priestley was known in his time as a socialist literary figure.)
Big Anderson is quick and fluid in her depiction of the silken Sheila Birling, the family’s daughter, who has come of age to marry.
In her role as Sybil Birling, the family matriarch, Eloisa Cardona has a compellingly regal stage presence that is ever-engaging.
Ejay Amor, as Eric Birling, gives an emotionally explosive portrayal of an alcoholic youth, who is probably destined for the carnage of the coming war.
Gunnar Johnson as the suave Gerald Croft is as bright and slick as hair gel.
As Arthur Birling, the upwardly ambitious father figure, Andrew Fry runs an emotional gamut of bluff, bluster and brutish bullying as he seeks to steer his family through shoals of accusation and guilt in order to guard the family’s reputation.
Kareyana Rose Aguons, as Edna the housemaid, is not to be overlooked. She provides some of the subtle comic moments in the course of the show.
This story is entertaining as a character study and an exposé of moral hypocrisy, but then Priestly subverts his own plot and introduces a whole new dimension. The sense of reality, for both the audience and the characters, seems to dissolve. It is as if a trap door opens and a whole new level of deconstruction begins.
The apprehension of truth seems to become mushy, depending on each character’s motives. This is what gives the play relevance in the present. The fool’s errand of trying to bend reality to serve ambition is something all too familiar to contemporary Americans, caught as we are in our fraught political climate in which shared truth turns out to be a house built on sand. The shift of gears ramps the audience from enjoyment of the characters and interest in their drama to engaging in a disquieting examination of the world beyond the stage.
And on top of everything, delicious cookies and beverages are served during the intermission!
A tip of the chapeau goes to Dukesbay for a well-built and engaging production.
What:
“An Inspector Calls”
When:
Through November 10, Fridays and Saturdays 7:30 p.m., Sundays 2 p.m.
Where:
Dukesbay Theater, Merlino Art Center, 508 S. Sixth Ave. #10
Cost:
$15
Learn More:
dukesbay.org