Spindrift's 'Inspector' calls on strong cast

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Oct 3, 2006 | by Keith Kreitman, CONTRIBUTOR

PACIFICA Spindrift Players' production of J.B. Priestley's "An Inspector Calls" starts out seemingly like a trivial rehash of the tried-and-true, upper-class Agatha Christie mystery genre and ends up sending an important social message.

Early in the play, we learn of the suicide of a beautiful, young, lower-class woman. The conventional Christie formula would dictate that the rest of the play be a "whodunit."

Who is responsible? Or, is there more than one culprit?

Inspector Goole (Brian Levi) arrives at the elegant mansion of prominent businessman and aspiring civic leader, Arthur Birling (Robert Cooper), and his upper-crust wife, Sheila (Erica Hamilton).

He interrupts a formal family dinner honoring the engagement of their daughter Sybil (Pamela Ciochetti) to stuffy businessman/ socialite Gerald Croft (Matthew Wehner). Also in attendance is the cynical alcoholic son Eric (Jared Martin).

Inspector Goole is a dominating presence, who brooks no socially rooted intimidation as he begins to question each member of the dinner party in turn. By the end, there is a devastating accumulation of details that, as in a jigsaw puzzle, comes together as an ugly picture.

Although this was written by Priestley after World War II, it is set circa 1910 because the subject matter is most historically relevant to that period.

It was a time of social unrest in which English Victorian placidity was giving way to social unrest. The Fabian socialists, with notable members such as science-fiction author H. G. Wells and playwright George Bernard Shaw, were examining the English power structure that favored royalty and wealth and ignored the growing number of economically and personally depressed lower classes laboring in the factories.

Priestley wished to point out the social injustices that prevailed and flourished before the onset of World War I, a conflict that exposed the decaying rules of the royals of Europe and the Ottoman Empire.

Still, the Agatha Christie model has become rather archaic, and although this play won many awards, it is still a test of audience patience to weave through a plot in which the action is broken up by frequent interchanges of accusations of guilt.

What saves this production is director Craig Cummins and his remarkable actors, whose English affectations and accents are all perfect.

Brian Levi, as the Inspector, dominates the stage.

Cooper gives his role just the proper amount of pomposity that marks a lower-class striver assuming the manners of the upper classes. And Hamilton, as his clearly socially superior wife, has just that tilted nose-in-the-air aloofness that speaks of the privileged class' self-righteousness.

As the spoiled daughter, Ciochetti shows her inner struggle with the realization of how cruelly her childish temper could damage a lower-class woman, defenseless in the wake of her jealously.

And Martin, as the equally spoiled son, is sympathetic as he drowns his inadequacies in alcohol.

The only one who seems to come out unscathed and unchanged from this exorcising of guilt is Wehner, who as the fiance, is seeking a marriage that can turn the best possible business deal.

Designer Robert Emerson creates a perfect Victorian dining room set in which to frame the action.

Wonderful acting and directing. Good show.