Cast announced for An Inspector Calls at the Playhouse

Casting announced for the West End return

Casting has been announced for the West End return of  JB Priestley's An Inspector Calls which runs at the Playhouse Theatre from 4 November 2016 to 4 February 2017.

Clive Francis will play Mr Birling alongside, Barbara Marten (Mrs Birling), Liam Brennan (Inspector Goole), Matthew Douglas (Gerald Croft), Carmela Corbett (Sheila Birling), Hamish Riddle (Eric Birling), Diana Payne-Myers (Edna), Geoffrey Towers, Benedict Salter and Beth Tuckey.

This production marks the 70th anniversary of the first UK staging of the play and the 25th anniversary of its first appearance at the National Theatre. Since premiering in 1992, the production, directed by Stephen Daldry, has won 19 major awards including four Tony Awards and three Oliviers. It has played to over four million people around the world.

Written at the end of the Second World War and set before the First, An Inspector Calls is described as "a compelling and haunting thriller." The story begins when the mysterious Inspector Goole calls unexpectedly on the prosperous Birling family home. Their peaceful family dinner party is shattered by his investigations into the death of a young woman and each character slowly learns that they each played a part in her demise.

The production features design by Ian MacNeil, music by Stephen Warbeck and lighting by Rick Fisher.

Clive Francis said about the casting: "An Inspector Calls is one of the great classic plays of the 20th century. It premiered in London's West End the year I was born and has now been seen by a whole new generation of theatre goers thanks to Stephen Daldry's brilliant and masterly production. An Inspector Calls is considered one of Priestley's greatest works, and has been subject to a variety of interesting interpretations, none more so than this historic National Theatre revival which I'm delighted to be part of."

Tickets to An Inspector Calls are now on sale.