I chose Ricky Gervais’ character David Brent to play Arthur Birling because he is self centered and thinks of himself before others. Arthur is very vocal and uses body language a lot to accompany his arguing. He should talk louder and lower than everyone else to appear manlier and in control of the situation. When he talks to the Inspector he should stand up as to try and assert his authority. Birling is said to be pompous and this could be portrayed if he used long words and didn’t use slang words like “squiffy” as earlier used by Sheila.
Birlings clothes should be very smart and expensive as he thinks of himself to be an upper class member of Brumleys society. The scene I have chosen to direct is Act 3 and the scene where Gerald rings up the infirmary to ask about Eva’s death. I have chosen this scene because it shows Gerald’s and Birling’s quick transition from unhappy and nervous to happy and jovial. The scene starts with Sheila saying that the Inspector showed her a photograph but not letting anyone else see it. This would create some suspicion and Gerald points out to Mrs Birling and Sheila that “there’s still no proof it was really the same girl.
” Birling backs Gerald up as he knows that if Gerald is right then he is off the hook. I would tell Gerald to take up the role of the Inspector with the same attitude, trying to get to the point. For this scene he questions everyone about what the Inspector asked them until he would come to the conclusion of ringing up the Infirmary and asking if Eva is there. As he is on the phone he should walk around nervously, looking over to the Birling’s whilst listening to the Infirmary employee. It turns out that there is no Eva Smith there and they hadn’t had a suicide for months.
This is the important part of the scene as everybody would breathe a huge sign of relief because they think that they are out of trouble. Then Birling would start saying how he had his suspicions all along and that a real Inspector would not talk to the upper class the same why Goole did. I think this is a good scene because before making the phone call, both Gerald and Birling are nervous and are not very happy about the goings on, but once Gerald comes off the phone they both totally change and are happy, not because Eva is supposedly alive but because they are no longer in hot water.
I would advise Birling to change back to his usual pompous self and start to talk about his knighthood again to show that he wasn’t really worried about Eva at all. However, Gerald would not be as jovial as at the start of the play because the Inspector exposed his affair which caused the marriage to be called off. But, right at the end of the scene, they receive a phone call which Birling answers as the other wait nervously. Birling then comes off the phone and tells everyone else that “That was the police. A girl has just died – on her way to the Infirmary – after swallowing some disinfectant.
And a police inspector is on his way here – to ask some – questions…. This is a brilliant way to end the scene because it confuses the audience and then makes them think “Who was the Inspector and how did he know all this was going to happen? ” In conclusion, I think that Birling is much more of a selfish Capitalist then I first imagined. He even disregards certain members of his family to concentrate on his business. Directing this as a play would be very hard as you would have to keep the “action” as interesting as possible because there is nothing else to focus on.
Gerald is also more selfish than he first appeared to be and I have found that he would rather have a week long relationship with a girl that he hardly knew than spend time with his fianci?? e. I think J. B Priestly was trying to say to all the readers that Capitalism is not the right way to think and that if you believe that it’s “every man for himself” then people get hurt in the process of your success. Priestly hated hard nosed businessmen and embodied one in Birling’s character.
Birling is the character the audience were supposed to dislike to perhaps Priestly was trying to make the audience realize that Socialism is the way to go and that the little you hear about Eva’s character shows her to be the nicest person out of everyone. She was supposed to be shown as a Socialist victim of a Capitalist family. The Birling’s selfishness had driven Eva to take her own life. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE J. B. Priestley section.
