To really dislike An Inspector Calls?

[SheilaSybilCroft]

It’s been a GCSE text since the 1990s (and probably before.)

I really don’t like it. I hate the big fuss that is made out of eva smith being ‘pretty’ - as if it would be somehow acceptable to hound her out of jobs if she was plain and old!

She did lie to Mrs B: how was she supposed to know one story was true while another was a lie? And while attitudes to unmarried mothers have changed it’s ridiculous to pretend that someone in Eva’s position would have been met with sympathy and kindness if she’d just met a nicer sort of woman.

I know it’s an attack on the upper classes of the Edwardian period and the characters are representative rather than literal but the preachy tone and high handed sort of manner taken by the inspector is annoying.

And the film version the BBC did about ten years ago presents a saint like Eva and deviates from the text just enough to confuse students!

Or is it just me?

Ye that bit

It absolutely ruined the moment for us when we watched it.

It's a shame you felt like that. I was baffled (never read the play, DD had to explain it to me) but when she did I thought it just shows the engagement of a theatre full of teenagers, many of whom might have not wanted to attend! I didn't find it a particularly dramatic, important moment that could have been ruined but I'm sorry your experience was.

I saw it in the theatre about 10 years ago and I thought it was excellent 🤷🏻‍♀️

Omg, I loved Macbeth as a teen! It's so dark, and complex, and the characters are complex too. I think it's possibly a play that needs to be seen though, I "got it" much more after I saw it than I did from reading it.

I've seen the Verdi's opera version too, which was excellent, although in parts the music is far too jolly for the libretto.

Exactly. No school has to teach AIC to their GCSE students.

Schools can select from a number of texts. Those who choose AIC do so for a variety of reasons, some of which are no doubt because of the text itself and some of which are no doubt to do with practicalities such as already having lots of copies and the fact that there are many revision materials available.

Yeh, that was (maybe still is?) a TikTok thing recently. My students seems quite bemused by it though so I don't think many of them were aware. Didn't ruin the moment at all for us though ... loved the enthusiasm! It's a great line and I'm always telling my students how funny it I find it.