An Inspector Calls An Inspector Calls An Inspector Calls is a play written by English dramatist J. B. Priestley, first performed in September 1945 in the Soviet Union and in 1946 in the UK. It is one of Priestley's best known works for the stage, and is considered to be one of the classics of mid-20th century English theatre. The play's success and reputation has been boosted in recent years by a successful revival by English director Stephen Daldry for the National Theatre in 1992, and a tour of the UK in 2011–2012. The play is a three-act drama, which takes place on
An Inspector Calls and audiences have interpreted Goole’s role as an "avenging angel" or a supernatural being because of his unexplained omniscience, his prophetic final speech in which he says that humanity will learn its lesson in "fire and blood and anguish" (referring to the First World War, two years after the setting of the play 1912) and even because of his name, which is a homophone for the word "" (meaning "ghost") and is also the name of a seaside town (which could possibly be a reference to the time period in the play when Eva Smith stays in a seaside town