About the work
A social drama in three acts by the British writer John Boynton Priestley, written in 1944/45. Because no London theatre was free due to the war, the world premiere took place in Russian in Moscow and Leningrad in September 1945; the British premiere at the New Theatre in London followed only in 1946.
Plot
In 1912, the prosperous Birling family celebrates daughter Sheila's engagement when Inspector Goole arrives investigating the suicide of a young working-class woman, Eva Smith. Over the course of the evening it emerges that the father, mother, Sheila, her brother Eric and her fiancé Gerald each played their own part in Eva's plight.
Cultural significance
The play is regarded as Priestley's sharpest indictment of class selfishness and social irresponsibility in the immediate aftermath of the war. Since Stephen Daldry's multi-award-winning 1992 production, it has been among the most frequently staged British plays of the twentieth century.