JB Priestley wrote successfully in many different forms. He published over 25 novels: in fact
he published more novels than plays. With this in mind we have to consider: why did
Priestley choose to write ‘An Inspector Calls’ as a play? Would it have worked as
well as a novel? Fortunately, we have the words of Priestley himself to answer these
questions.
In 1947, shortly after writing ‘An Inspector Calls’, Priestley published a non-fiction
work titled ‘Theatre Outlook’. In this book he explains that he ‘did not go to
work in the Theatre and then discover, because it helped me to earn a living, that the Theatre
is important. I left other kinds of writing, which offered me a safe living and far more
piece of mind, to work in the Theatre because I believed the Theatre to be important.’
The obvious question that springs to mind here is ‘how and why is the Theatre important?’
Priestley goes on the explain that we must look at a play differently to other forms
of literature. If we analyse simply the writer’s use of language, for example, we offer no
appreciation of the unique aspects of drama. We could, as he puts it ‘enjoy all these,
taking your own time, at home’. No, to Priestley there was something unique about theatre,
and it is essential in ‘An Inspector Calls’. He explains how, ‘a genuine theatrical audience
is not simply an assembly of individuals, all reacting as they would in private. Everything
is heightened and felt more because in such an audience there is a collective response.’
He continues, ‘you on your side cannot fully enjoy what is happening unless you lose your
sense of separation from the people all round you, become part of the audience and indeed
part of the whole performance, sharing the collective response and experience.’
So there it is: to Priestley, the form of drama refuses to allow the audience to experience
the text in isolation and joins them together collectively. It is a form of literature which
breaks down barriers and individualism, and forces a collective response. This of course
ties in nicely with the main theme of the text: collective responsibility. The inspector’s
words, ‘We are members of one body’ adequately describe the collective nature of a theatre
audience. Therefore we can argue that the form of the text actually helps to create
a glimpse of the collective society Priestley is calling for.
Another unique aspect of this form is pointed out by Manfred Pfister in ‘The Theory and
Analysis of Drama’:
‘One consequence of the collective reception of dramatic texts is that the individual receiver
is unable to vary the tempo of the reception process, nor can he usually interrupt it at
will or have sections repeated if he has failed to understand the text. The reader of a novel,
on the other hand, can determine his own reading speed, abandon or take up the text when he
wishes, or even simply leaf through it forwards or backwards as his whim takes him.’
So what is Pfister saying? With a play, the audience is not in control. If they mishear
a line of dialogue, they cannot revisit it. If they wish to refer back to an earlier event
to check something, they cannot. If they are struggling to concentrate, they cannot put
the text down and have a rest: they are a captive audience. Whilst the characters on-stage
do all at least once escape the intensity of the action (not one character in ‘An
Inspector Calls’ remains onstage throughout the entire play), the audience cannot do the
same. We, as the audience, are not granted even a moment’s respite from the interrogation
and its effects. Why is that? Perhaps because Priestley wants to challenge the audience
with the message of the play, refusing to let up or give them respite from the intensity.
This, then, means that drama is the perfect form for ‘An Inspector Calls’. As Maggie
B. Gale puts it in her book ‘J.B. Priestley’, ‘Priestley maintained that theatre had the
power to educate and to integrate and enliven a community, to help it think through the
social issues which affected it.’ Yes, it was in the setting of the theatre that Priestley
truly felt he could challenge his audience. Challenge them with a lesson they could not
get away from.
Well I hope you found this short video useful. Do check out my animated videos on ‘An Inspector
Calls’, the first of which is linked here on-screen.