Review of An Inspector Calls Stephen Daldry’s multi award winning interpretation of J B Priestley’s An Inspector Calls has enthralled audiences around the world since it’s opening in 1992 at the National Theatre. It has arrived this week at the Theatre Royal in Bath as part of its UK 2011/12 tour.

The production starts with a very surrealistic image of the wealthy Birling family home rising above the poverty of the rubbish strewn, bomb stricken cobbled streets of the 1940s below. The house looks very much like a dolls house as it appears to float over the stage.

After a while through the mist and rain you can hear, and see, the Birling family, inside the house, celebrating the engagement of their daughter Sheila, played by Kelly Hotten, to wealthy heir Gerald Croft, played by John Sackville.

Their dinner is interrupted when parlour maid, Edna, played by Janie Booth, announces the unexpected arrival of Police Inspector Goole. The inspector wants to ask them about the death of a young woman. It transpires that each of them has a secret link to the girl.

The inspector, played brilliantly by Tom Mannion, questions the family individually and it evolves that each one had a connection with the girl.

Karen Archer as Sybil Birling plays a brilliant matriarch as the mother who knows everything about her family but also knows very little. Mannion's commanding performance of the Inspector draws the audience into the drama that unfolds on stage.

The staging of this production is exceptional; the stage effects are dark and thrilling. Mist, rain and gloomy streets make the audience feel part of the set.

The foundations of the family home are brought crashing down with the revelations of the family’s involvement with the death of the girl.

A dark, thrilling, powerful interpretation of Priestley’s classic thriller that asks questions not only of the Birling family but also the audience.

An Inspector Calls runs, at the Theatre Royal, until October 8.