AN INSPECTOR CALLS to Play The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury

THE NATIONAL Theatre's multi-award-winning production of JB Priestley's An Inspector Calls comes to The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, this month (January).

Winner of 19 major international awards, Director Stephen Daldry's legendary production of the classic thriller first premiered in Moscow in 1945. Written at the end of the Second World War and set before the First World War, the story begins when the mysterious Inspector Goole calls unexpectedly on the prosperous Birling family home. Their peaceful dinner party is shattered by his investigations into the death of a young woman whom each of them in turn has exploited. His startling revelations not only shatter the very foundations of their lives but challenge us all to examine our consciences.

Daldry's visionary production unites the 1912 setting with the time it was written in 1945, transferring the play to a dramatic cobblestone war-torn wasteland, where the Edwardian Birling family home looms precariously, suspended on stilts.

Stephen Daldry has received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and/or Best Picture for his films The Reader (starring Kate Winslett, Ralph Fiennes), The Hours (starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore), Billy Elliot (starring Jamie Bell), and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock).

He won his first major directorial success in 1992 when his visionary revival of An Inspector Calls opened at the National Theatre to outstanding critical acclaim. Featuring Ian MacNeil's ingenious designs, a sweeping score by Oscar-winning composer Stephen Warbeck (Shakespeare In Love) and atmospheric lighting by Rick Fisher, the production has received an unprecedented string of awards, including the Olivier Award for Best Revival, Best Director and Best Designer and the Tony Award on Broadway for Best Revival, Best Director and Best Lighting.

Daldry's recent West End theatre work includes a revival of David Hare's Skylight starring Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan at the Wyndham's Theatre, and Peter Morgan's The Audience, originally starring Helen Mirren at the Gielgud Theatre and then Kristen Scott Thomas at the Apollo Theatre. His multi award-winning production of Billy Elliot The Musical is now enjoying its 10th year at the Victoria Palace.

The longest running play revival in history, An Inspector Calls has played in the West End (including a six-year run), on Broadway, across Australia, the United States, Japan and Europe and has currently completed seven major UK tours. The production returned to the West End in 2010, winning a host of five-star reviews and enjoying sell-out performances at the Novello Theatre, before transferring to the Wyndham's for an extended run. Widely renowned as the theatrical event of our generation, this production has now been seen by an excess of three million theatregoers worldwide.

An Inspector Calls is at The Marlowe Theatre from Tuesday 19 to Saturday 23 January (7.30pm, and 2.30pm on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday). Tickets, priced from £18 to £33.50 (concessions available; booking fee applies), are from the Box Office on 01227 787787, or marlowetheatre.com.

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