DOCSLIB.ORG

Download Searchable

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Download Searchable mtlit€itpittMmfovk THE LIBRARIES 1^ piM Pi^SiSi^ Jfi^. A: MttNE SAMvpi. FRENCH, n pms mm BU IVew YM mjM^tf mm^tm^ wtm^^iU ^mUme^ m^mmi m^-h^ ^l»m# .^ ^1 ^^ I ^ ^ .^88^8^8^««J**«!WS«**S^ '.. ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^. ^ ^ . .^ ;:^^. -^^ ^ \ 1^ THE ACTING EDITION OF Mr. Pirn Passes By A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS BY A. A. MILNE COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY A. A. MILNE All Rights Reserved CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that "MR. PIM PASSES BY," being fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of Amer­ ica, the British Empire, including the Dominion of Can­ ada, and the other countries of the Copyright Union, is subject to a royalty, and anyone presenting the play without the consent of the owners or their authorized agents will be liable to the penalties by law provided. Applications for the Professional and Amateur acting rights must be made to Samuel French. 25 West 45th Street, New York, N. Y. NEW YORK LONDON SAMUEL FRENCH SAMUEL FRENCH, LTD. PUBLISHER 26 SOUTHAMPTON STREET S5 WEST 45TH STREET STRAND ''MR. PIM PASSES BY'' All Rights Reserved Especial notice should be taken that the possession, of this book without a valid contract for production first having been obtained from the publisher, confers no right or license to professionals or amateurs to produce the play publicly or in private for gain or charity. In^ its present form this play is dedicated to the reading public only, and no performance, representation, production, recitation by amateurs, public reading or radio broadcasting may be given except by special arrangement with Samuel French, 25 West 45th Street, New York. This play may be presented by amateurs upon payment of a royalty of Fifty Dollars for each performance, payable to Samuel French, 25 West 45th Street, New York, one week before the date when the play is given. Professional royalty quoted on application to Samuel French, 25 West 45th Street, New York, N. Y. Whenever the play is produced the following notice must appear on all programs, printing and advertising for the play: "Produced by special arrangement with Samuel French of New York" Attention is called to the penalty provided by law for any infringement of the author's rights, as follows: "SECTION 4966:—Any person publicly performing or rep­ resenting any dramatic or musical composition for which copyright has been obtained, without the consent of the proprietor of said dramatic or musical composition, or his heirs and assigns, shall be liable for damages thereof, such damages, in all cases to be assessed at such sum, not less than one hundred dollars for the first and fifty dollars for every subsequent performance, as to the court shall appear to be just. If the unlawful performance and representation be wilful and for profit, such person or persons shall ^ be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be im­ prisoned for a period not exceeding one year."—U. S. Revised Statutes: Title 60, Chap. 3. CHARACTERS THE ORIGINAL OAST AT JHE GAIETY THEATRE, MANCHESTEB GBOBQE MABDEN, J.P. • • • • • Mr. Ben Webster. OLIVIA (his Wife) •••••• Miss Irene VanbrugK DINAH (his Niece) . • , • • . Miss Georgette Cohan. LADY HARDEN (hia Aunt) • « • • • Miss St/bil Carlisle. BRIAN STRANGE ••••••• Mr. Philip Boston. CARRAWAY PIM •••••• • Mr. Dion BoucicauU. ANNB Miss Ethel Wdlesley. The action takes place in the morning-room at Marden House, Buckingham- ehire, on a day in July. THE ORIGINAL LONDON OAST AT THE NEW THEATRE GBORGB MAEDBN, J.P. • • . • Mr. Ben Webster. OuviA (his Wife) •••••• Miss Irene Vanbrugh DINAH (his Niece) .•••*. Miss (georgette Cohan. LADY MARDEN (MS Aunt) • • • • » Miss Ethel Oriffles. BRIAN STRANGB ••••••• Mr. Leslie Howard. CARRAWAY PIM ••••••• Mr. Dion BoucicauU. ANNS •»••••• • « Miss Ethel WtOeaU^ Produced by the Theatre Guild at the Garrick Theatre, on Monday evening, February 28, 1921, with the following cast: ANNE Peggy Harvey CARRAWAY PIM Erskine Saiiford DINAH Phyllis Povah BRIAN STRANGE Leonard Mudie OLIVIA MARDEN Laura Hope Or ewes GEORGE MARDEN, J. P. Dudley Digges LADY MARDEN . Helen Westley MR. PIM PASSES BY ACT I fhi' mom{ng-Toom at Marden House (BuchingJiamsMre) decided nuyre than a hundred years ago that it was all right, and has not bothered about itself since. Visitors to the house have called the result swc^ different adjectives as " mellow,'* " old-fashioned," " charming '*— even " baronial" and " antique " ; but nobody ever said it was " exciting.'' Sometimes OLIVIA wants it to be more exciting, and last week she rather let herself go over some new curtains ; she stiU has the rings to put on. It is obvious that the curtains alone will overdo the isxcitement; they will have to be harmonized with a new carpet and cushions. OLIVIA has her eye on just the things, but one has to go carefully with GEORGE. What was good enough for his great-great­ grandfather is good enough for him. However, we can trust OLIVIA to see him through it, although it may take time. A scene plot is given at the end of the play. There are three ways of coming into the room: by the open windows leading from the garden, by the doors to R., or by the staircase from up R. MR. PIM chooses the latter way—or rather ANNE chooses it for him; and MR. PIM kindly and inoffensively follows her. She comes down steps and crosses to c, followed by MR. PIM. ANNE (moves up, looking off L. and returning to PIM R.O.). 1*11 tell Mr. Marden you're here, sir. Mr. Pim, isn't it ? PIM (nervously). Yes—er—Mr. Pim—Mr. Carraway Pim. He doesn't know me, you understand, but if he could just spare me a few moments—er (He fumbles in his pockets.) I gave you that letter ? ANNE. Yes, sir, I'll give it to him. PiM {brings out a stamped letter which is not the one he was looking for, but which reminds him of something else he has forgotten. Looking at letter). Oh I Dear me I ANNE. Yes, sir 1 PIM. Dear me. I ought to have posted this. (Looking at letter.) Oh, well, I must send a telegram. You have a telegraph office In the village ? ANNE. Oh, yes, sir. {Moving up to terrace up L. and poifUdng qffh.) If you turn to the left when you get outside the gates, it's 7 • MR. PIM PASSES BY. [Acm L about a hundred yards down the hill. Turn to the left and down thehiU. PIM. Turn to the left and down the hill. Thank you, thank you. Very stupid of me to have forgotten. (ANKB exiU up staircase B.) (MR. PIM wanders about the room humming to himself, and looking at the pictures and photos on piano. Then goes out at wir^doio up L.) (DINAH enters from staircase up B. dancing^ and humming the air of ** Down on the Farm " ; she is nineteen, very pretty, very happy, and full of boyish high spirits and conversation. She dances to foot of stairs, looks off R., then down c. then to piano ; sits and plays a few bars and sings " Doum on the Farm," rises and moves up to u. of piano, and as she does so PIM re-enters from window up L. and they come suddenly face ioface up hack 0. below the writing-table. There it a slight pause.) DINAH (backing a step). Hullo! PIM. YOU must forgive me, but • • • Gfood momin Mm Marden. DINAH. Oh, I say, /'m not Mrs. Marden. I'm Dinah. PIM (unth a smile). Then I wiU say, Good morning, Miss Diana. DINAH (reproachfully). Now, look here, if you and I are going to be friends, you mustn't do that. Dinah, not Diana. Do remember It, there's a good man, because I get so tired of correcting people. {Moving doum 0. to B.) Have you come to stay with us ? (Sits on settee R.) PIM (following her down). Well, no, Miss—er—Dinah. DINAH (nodding). That's right. I can see I shan't have to speak to you again. Now tell me your name, and I bet you I get it right first time. And do sit down. PIM (crossing to L. and sitting on settee L.). Thank you. My name IB—er—Pim, Carraway Pim DINAH. Pim, that's easy. PIM. And I have a letter of introduction to your father DINAH (rising and crossing to R. of table L.C. and speaking across same). Oh, no; now you're going wrong again, Mr. Pim. George isn't my father; he's my uncle. Uncle George—he doesn't hke me calling him George. Olivia doesn't mind—I mean she doesn't mind being called OUvia, but George is rather touchy. (Sitting on table, facing PIM.) YOU see, he's been my guardian since I was about two, and then about five years ago he married a widow called Mrs. Telworthy. PIM (repeating). Mrs. Telworthy. DINAH. That's OHvia—so she became my Aunt Olivia, only she lets me drop the Aunt. (Speaking very sharply.) Get that! PIM (a little alarmed). I—I think so. Miss Marden. DINAH (admiringly). I say, you are quick, Mz. Pim. Well, U ACT I.] MK. PIM PASSES BY. 9 you take my advice, when you've finished your business with George, you will hang about a bit and see if you can't see Olivia. (Rising and moving c.) She's simply—(feeling for the word)—devastating. I don't wonder George fell in love with her. (Moving to above piano R., looking at photos, etc.) PIM (rising and looking at his watch and coming c).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • An Inspector Calls Is Recommended for the Artistic Team Students in Grade 8 Director……………………….JIM MEZON and Higher
    An Inspector by J.B. Priestley Calls ONNECTIONS Shaw Festival CStudy Guide The Shaw Story 2 The Players 3 The Story 4 Who’s Who 5 The Playwright 6-7 Director’s Notes 8 Designer’s Notes 9 Production History 10 World of the Play 11-15 Did You Know? 16 Say What? 17 Sources 18 Activities 18-29 Response Sheet 30 THE SHAW STORY MANDATE The Shaw Festival is the only theatre in the world which exclusively focuses on plays by Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries, including plays written or about the period of Shaw’s lifetime (1856 – 1950). The Shaw Festival’s mandate also includes: • Uncovered Gems – digging up undiscovered theatrical treasures, or plays which were considered major works when they were written but which have since been unjustly neglected • American Classics – we continue to celebrate the best of American theatre • Musicals – rarely-performed musical treats from the period of our mandate are re- discovered and returned to the stage WHAT MAKES • Canadian Work – to allow us to hear and promote our own stories, our own points SHAW SPECIAL of view about the mandate period. MEET THE COMPANY — OUR ENSEMBLE • Our Actors: All Shaw performers contribute to the sense of ensemble, much like the players in an orchestra. Often, smaller parts are played by actors who are leading performers in their own right, but in our “orchestra,” they support the central action helping to create a density of experiences that are both subtle and informative. • Our Designers: Every production that graces the Shaw Festival stages is built “from scratch,” from an original design.
    [Show full text]
  • Gender Sensitization in “An Inspector Calls”
    International Journal of Applied Research 2018; 4(11): 237-239 ISSN Print: 2394-7500 ISSN Online: 2394-5869 Gender Sensitization in “An Inspector Calls”: A Impact Factor: 5.2 IJAR 2018; 4(11): 237-239 Feminine Gendering Portrait of Social Landscape by J www.allresearchjournal.com Received: 29-08-2018 B Priestley Accepted: 15-10-2018 Rajesh Kumar Rajesh Kumar Research Scholar, Department Of English, LN Mithila University, Abstract Kameshwarnagar, Amidst in cultural landscape of England, Priestley in “An Inspector Calls”, sternly advocates about the Darbhanga, Bihar, India idea of feminine-gendering-landscape in pre-war British society. Through the massive representation of feminine characters of the play, he tends to open the reality of white-skinned-men of the society who as per patriarchal or men-gendered attitudes how suppress the women in the pre-war British society. “An Inspector Calls” set in 1912, amidst cultural landscape of Britain, a time when there was a class divide and gender sensitization and especially feminine-gendering who expected to know their position and place in provincial or metropolitan landscape in British society that is evident from the doom character of the play-Eva Smith alias Daisy Renton. So, Priestley explores the idea of gender discrimination through Mr. Arthur Birling, Gerold Croft and Eric birling in one side and Sybil Birling, Sheila Birling with especial attention on Eva Smith by the plaint Goole on other side. Keywords: cultural landscape, feminine-gendering, social landscape, metropolitan landscape, provincial landscape, gender discrimination Introduction The three act play, “An Inspector Calls” is a such type of work in which the playwright present a gender sensitive case with his stylistic way of writings in which male lust and sexual exploitation of the weak by the powerful white-skinned British- also a call by the millions of British mouth to English society.
    [Show full text]
  • The Project Gutenberg Ebook of Getting Married, By
    The Project Gutenberg EBook of Getting Married, by our marriage law is inhuman and unreasonable to the George Bernard Shaw point of downright abomination, the bolder and more rebellious spirits form illicit unions, defiantly sending This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost cards round to their friends announcing what they have and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may done. Young women come to me and ask me whether I copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the think they ought to consent to marry the man they have Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or decided to live with; and they are perplexed and online at www.gutenberg.org astonished when I, who am supposed (heaven knows why!) to have the most advanced views attainable on the Title: Getting Married subject, urge them on no account to compromize themselves without the security of an authentic wedding Author: George Bernard Shaw ring. They cite the example of George Eliot, who formed an illicit union with Lewes. They quote a saying Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5604] This file was attributed to Nietzsche, that a married philosopher is first posted on July 20, 2002 Last Updated: April 10, ridiculous, though the men of their choice are not 2013 philosophers. When they finally give up the idea of reforming our marriage institutions by private enterprise Language: English and personal righteousness, and consent to be led to the Registry or even to the altar, they insist on first arriving at *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG an explicit understanding that both parties are to be EBOOK GETTING MARRIED *** perfectly free to sip every flower and change every hour, as their fancy may dictate, in spite of the legal bond.
    [Show full text]
  • RLT Script Catalogue in Play Order As at 2009
    Plays listed alphabetically by title Playwright 1 Playwright 2 Title of Play Title of Book No. A Doneman, Michael A bargain In praise of flatheads and six other 1 plays (Classroom Plays) Freeman, Dave A bedfull of foreigners A bedfull of foreigners 1 White, Patrick A cheery soul Four plays by Patrick White 3 King, Martha B. A christmas carol (by Charles A christmas carol (by Charles 2 Dickens) Dickens) Sutton, Shaun A christmas carol (from the story A christmas carol (from the story 1 by Charles Dickens) by Charles Dickens) Lawrence, DH A collier's Friday night DH Lawrence: Three plays 1 Wright, Dorothy A cradle of willow A cradle of willow 1 Nichols, Peter A day in the death of Joe Egg A day in the death of Joe Egg 3 Moliere A doctor in spite of himself Moliere: The misanthrope and 1 other plays Ibsen, Henrik A doll's house A doll's house and two other plays 3 Ibsen, Henrik A doll's house Four great plays by Ibsen 1 Ibsen, Henrik A doll's house Ibsen: Plays 1 Ibsen, Henrik A doll's house Henrik Ibsen: A doll's house and 1 other plays Ibsen, Henrik A doll's house Henrik Ibsen: A doll's house, The 1 lady from the sea, The wild duck Shaw, Bernard A dressing room secret The black girl in search of God: 1 and some lesser plays Feydeau, Georges A flea in her ear A flea in her ear 1 Wilde, Oscar A florentine tragedy The works of Oscar Wilde 1 Stewart, Maureen A frosty story A frosty story and other plays 1 Sondheim, Stephen A funny thing happened on the A funny thing happened on the 1 way to the forum way to the forum Kenna, Peter A hard god A hard god 2 Chekhov, Anton A jubilee Chehov plays 1 Chekhov, Anton A jubilee Anton Chekhov: Plays 1 Bolt, Robert A man for all seasons A man for all seasons 3 Gorman, Clem A manual of trench warfare A manual of trench warfare 1 Larbey, Bob A month of Sundays A month of Sundays 3 Plays listed alphabetically by title Playwright 1 Playwright 2 Title of Play Title of Book No.
    [Show full text]
  • The Casualty Estimate for World War I, Both Military and Civilian, Was Over 40 Million – 20 Million Deaths and 21 Million Wounded
    The casualty estimate for World War I, both military and civilian, was over 40 million – 20 million deaths and 21 million wounded. This includes 9.7 million military deaths and about 10 million civilian deaths. The Entente Powers lost more than 5 million soldiers and the Central Powers about 4 million. Then just a few short years later, World War II began, and racked up an even more impressive list; roughly 72 million. The civilian toll was around 47 million, including 20 million deaths due to war-related famine and disease. So it was a stunned and exhausted world that received John Boynton Priestley’s newest play, AN INSPECTOR CALLS. BY NEIL MUNRO Priestley by the end of the war was already a figure of some renown. His novel The Good Companions had become world famous, and his voice had become second in popularity to none other than Winston Churchill. Priestley wrote and delivered a personal view of the war for BBC Radio, chronicling the trials and tribulations of the ordinary working man and woman. The carnage, the courage, not to mention the optimism of the English people, seemed to need the popularity of an ordinary voice (rather than that of a professional politician) to soothe the daily wounds inflicted by Hitler’s buzz bombs and the massive battles being fought overseas. 10 Shaw Magazine / Spring 2008 Benedict Campbell, who will play Inspector Goole in the 2008 production of AN INSPECTOR CALLS (Photo by Shin Sugino). 11 This kind of destruction on such a grand scale Priestley wanted to write a play that focused on the profoundly affected Priestley’s views of both socialism terrible problems that could develop between people and and capitalism.
    [Show full text]
  • An Inspector Calls – Education Resource Pack
    An Inspector Calls – Education Resource Pack The Writer JB Priestley was born in Bradford in 1894 and served throughout the First World War before going to Cambridge to study History, Political Science and English. He began writing and selling his work while still a student. He settled in London in 1922 and began a long career as novelist, playwright, essayist and critic. He wrote three novels in the twenties before he had his first major success with his warm-hearted show business story The Good Companions (1929), which has been adapted for the stage (a version was produced at Theatre by the Lake in 2002), television, radio and the cinema. Twenty-eight novels followed, including Angel Pavement (1930), Let the People Sing (1938), Bright Day (1946), Festival at Farbridge (1951) and The Image Men (1968). His first play was his own adaptation of The Good Companions in 1930 and it was followed by 41 others, including Dangerous Corner, Time and the Conways, When We Are Married, Johnson Over Jordan, An Inspector Calls and The Linden Tree, all written within a prolific 20-year period. Priestley wrote 63 other books of essays and criticism (including works on Dickens and Chekhov) and English Journey, his 1943 account of his roamings through England when he observed growing social inequalities during the Depression. Its influence remains almost 80 years on. During the Second World War, his Postscript broadcasts for the BBC were very popular; they appealed to listeners needing words of comfort and sanity at a time of turmoil and danger. Priestley famously reflected on the beauty of the English landscape, the Dunkirk evacuation and a pie steaming in a shop window.
    [Show full text]
  • An Inspector Calls by J.B
    An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley Directed by Jim Mezon “After all, y’know, we’re respectable citizens and not criminals.” “Sometimes there isn’t as much difference as you think.” Who killed Eva Smith? That’s the question Inspector Goole wants answered when he calls on the Birling family one spring evening in 1912. The Birlings are in the midst of a celebration dinner. Their daughter Sheila has just become engaged to Gerald Croft, son of the president of Crofts Limited, and rival to Birling and Company. The Birlings are a prosperous family, one that Priestley describes as “pleased with themselves”, and this impending marriage makes this one of the happiest nights of Arthur Birling’s life. Arthur is feeling particularly expansive on this night – it’s 1912 and to him, the progress he sees happening in the world is cause for celebration. A new ship called the Titanic is about to set sail, automobiles and airplanes are making travel easier, and this looming war that people keep talking about will never come to pass. “We can’t let these Bernard Shaws and H.G. Wellses do all the talking”, he tells his family, “We hard-headed practical businessmen must say something sometime.” Then, we hear a ring at the door – an Inspector is calling and he says it’s important. He enters the room and reveals some shocking news: “Two hours ago a young woman died in the Infirmary. She’d been taken there this afternoon because she’d swallowed a lot of strong disinfectant … they did everything they could for her at the Infirmary, but she died.
    [Show full text]
  • Actors from the London Stage Fall Tour 2015
    ACTORS FROM THE LONDON STAGE FALL TOUR 2015 by William Shakespeare Venue Name Performance Dates Performance Times Insert your school logo here [This space available for use by the host school.] THE AFTLS APPROACH For most of his working life, William Shakespeare was a sharer in the King’s Men, London’s leading theatre company. He knew the actors he was writing for and collaborated with them on seeing the plays into performance. All theatre is a collaboration, of course, and, while actors can no longer collaborate directly with Shakespeare, the Actors From The London Stage (AFTLS) company always aims to work with him, respectfully and creatively, throughout the rehearsal process. For forty years (since 2015 is the 40th anniversary of our founding), our company’s aim has always been to make his words exert their magic and their power in performance, but we do this in a vital, and perhaps unconventional, way. We have no massive sets to tower over the performers and no directorial concept to tower over the text of Shakespeare’s play. In fact, AFTLS does not have a director at all; instead, the play has been rehearsed by the actors, working together to create theatre, cooperating with each other in their imaginative engagement with the play’s words. And hundreds of thousands of playgoers over the forty years of AFTLS’s existence have hugely enjoyed doing exactly that, for the words are what Shakespeare used to create places and people, ideas and arguments, conflict and, sometimes, resolution, all the concerns that make up the very stuff of drama.
    [Show full text]
  • Remember When...?
    PAGE 18 Wednesday, July 4, 2018 Wednesday, July 4, 2018 PAGE 19 REMEMBER WHEN...? Read more about bygone Bradford @ telegraphandargus.co.uk Like us at facebook.com/telegraphandargus.co.uk REMEMBER WHEN...? LANDSCAPES WOVEN INTO THE FABRIC OF LITERATURE Yorkshire’s diverse landscapes have long held the power to influence writers, finds HELEN MEAD ROM sweeping moorland to industrial cities and rugged coastlines, Yorkshire has inspired many great writers. WEAVING: Industrial Bradford inspired JB Priestley’s works F Authors such as Charlotte and Emily Bronte, JB Priestley, John Braine and Alan Bennett have been stirred by the landscapes of their youth, which have served to influence their novels. Now a new book celebrates the lives and works of a selection of writers, authors and poets whose work draws upon the varied scenes that make up the region. Yorkshire Literary Landscapes also examines how the landscape can help to define storylines and characters. Countless books and articles have been written about landscape in the novels and poetry of the Bronte sisters, but, explains the book, “there is much more to the Brontes’ landscapes than that atmospheric blasted heath above Haworth”. Charlotte Bronte’s 1849 novel Shirley, for instance, has as its background the Luddite uprisings that beset the Yorkshire textile industry. Published under the pseudonym Currer Bell, the GRIM: Industrial Shipley, which influenced John Braine, author of Room at the Top book is set around Birstall, with locations including the 17th-century Moor, for a picnic and a game of town of Dufton to Warnley to assume a Red House in Gomersal, Kirklees Hall, cricket and another, fateful, picnic at secure, but poorly paid, post in the Elizabethan Oakwell Hall – renamed Pikeley Scar.
    [Show full text]
  • Featuring Greg Matthew Anderson and Nick Sandys
    J. B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls Field Guide Remy Bumppo, December 2013 Featuring Greg Matthew Anderson and Nick Sandys Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago www.remybumppo.org / 733-404-7336 Field Guide created by Samantha Bauer 1 J. B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls Field Guide Remy Bumppo, December 2013 Table of Contents John Boynton Priestley: A Biography…………………………….. 3-5 Priestley’s Postscripts…………………………………………………… 6-7 Priestley’s Parlourmaid…………………………………………………. 8-10 Smith and Suffrage………………………………………………………. 11-15 Playing with Time…………………………………………………………. 16-18 Wartime Britain: A Timeline…………………………………………. 19-22 A Closer Look at 1912…………………………………………………… 23 Tools of the Trade: A Dramaturg’s Sourcebook……………… 24-38 Snackable Sources: Feed Your Brain!................................ 39-43 2 J. B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls Field Guide Remy Bumppo, December 2013 John Boynton Priestley: A Biography Samantha Bauer, Artistic Intern of Remy Bumppo J. B. Priestley was an accomplished English novelist, playwright and speaker, achieving widespread popularity and critical success in his time. Even today, theatre companies such as Remy Bumppo eagerly take on his works because, to put it simply, they are beloved and reliably entertaining. CHILDHOOD Long before his literary accomplishments, Priestley came from humble roots. Born September 13, 1884, John Priestley would be the only child of Jonathan Priestley, a schoolmaster, and Emma Holt, a mill girl. Despite the early passing of his mother in 1886, Priestley enjoyed a relatively peaceful youth in a small suburb of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Though a gifted student, Priestley soon grew bored at school, leaving at age 16 to work as a clerk in one of the many Bradford wool firms.
    [Show full text]
  • An Inspector Calls CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER CHICAGOSHAKESPEARETHEATER Welcome
    THE NATIONAL THEATRE OF GREAT BRITAIN’S LANDMARK PRODUCTION OF JB PRIESTLEY’S CLASSIC THRILLER AN INSPECTOR CaLLS CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER CHICAGOSHAKESPEARETHEATER Welcome DEAR FRIENDS, Our design mandate for The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare was to create a wholly flexible theater that would act as a dynamic complement to our existing two venues—the Jentes Family Courtyard Theater and the Thoma Theater Take your seat! Upstairs. Since opening in late 2017, The Yard has transformed into eight distinct configurations with audience capacities ranging from 100 to nearly 800. In addition to supporting the development of our own work, this flexibility has also fostered the growth of our international offerings. The National Theatre of Great Britain’s award-winning thriller An Inspector Calls, helmed by legendary director Stephen Daldry, is a stunning—and sprawling— production. The sheer volume of the set and expansive staging require a large venue, and the production sits beautifully in The Yard. We are thrilled to have you join us for this masterpiece—a provocative exploration of social responsibility. Chicago Shakespeare’s commitment to showcase artistry from around the globe continues with our next WorldStage presentation: Two Pints from Ireland's Abbey Theatre. Penned by Booker Prize-winner Roddy Doyle, the play will be staged in Chicago Shakespeare’s Pub—the first time in our history that this intimate space has been activated for performances. Meanwhile, playing in the Courtyard Theater is a 75-minute abridged production of Macbeth adapted specifically for student audiences. One of the most powerful plays in Shakespeare’s canon, it will welcome 1,000 students and teachers daily during its run on Navy Pier, followed by a three-week tour to schools across the Chicago area.
    [Show full text]
  • An Inspector Calls Aim Higher
    An Inspector Calls Aim Higher Name: Teacher: Katherine Howard @saysmiss Contents Understanding the Man: • An Inspector Calls and JB Priestley’s political journey, A Cullimgford • Postscript of JB Priestley, BBC, 1940 Putting Things into Context • Four Revelations about the Titanic Disaster by J Kent Layton, Bill Wormstedt and Tad Fitch • Suffragettes, Violence and militancy by Fern Riddell • The Annals of Labour by John Burnett • George Orwell, on the stereotypical modern businessman of the 1930’s Theories and Themes • An Outline of Oupensky’s theory of Eternal Recurrence, through Francis Bass • J.W. Dunne and the popular promise of dreams by Katy Price • Biblical Allusion in An Inspector Calls Audience Reception • JB Priestley's An Inspector Calls, October 1946 by Samantha Ellis, The Guardian • An Inspector Calls is poisonous, revisionist propaganda - which is why the luvvies love it by James Delingpole, The Spectator A Modern Perspective • The BBC’s Steph McGovern is right: posh girls get paid more by Deborah Orr, The Times • Birth in toilets puts a spotlight on Sports Direct conditions by Jeannie Robinson, The Socialist Worker • The Social Media Effect: Are You Really Who You Portray Online? By R. Kay Green • Further debate, discussion and exploration tasks Katherine Howard @saysmiss How to use this booklet As you read each article, use the discussion questions at the end to consider: • How is this relevant to the play? • How could I apply what I have just read to particular characters or themes? • Which particular scene or moment
    [Show full text]