Brad swaps centre stage for backstage for An Inspector Calls in Shrewsbury

When he told the cast of the acclaimed drawing-room whodunnit that he had to come to Shrewsbury for a flying visit a couple of weeks ago, they thought it was in his role as company manager for the show.

But when they heard it was to do a press call for this year’s panto at Theatre Severn in which he stars as Widow Twankey in Aladdin, they teased him that he had top billing ahead of their production.

He has spent time front and centre of the stage in his various roles as the pantomime dame for the past nine years, but Brad is more at home in the wings, being the lynchpin between the company and the producers.

Although he never trained as an actor, he has carved a name out for himself as one of the most acclaimed dames in the country.

But his role as company manager and associated producer was his original calling.

“This really is my main job” said Brad, who was taking a break between shows during An Inspector Calls’ current run in Hull.

He started his career at Bristol Old Vic and has moved around the country over the years. “I am only an actor at Christmas,” he said. “I am the link between the producers and the crew. Coming to Shrewsbury for the week’s run will be a surprise for a lot of the crew when they see me in this role. But that is just what I do.”

An Inspector Calls was written by English dramatist JB Priestley in 1944-45.

It has won rave reviews and been dubbed a ‘landmark’ production. The current multi-award winning version was produced by Stephen Daldry for the National Theatre and it has been seen by an estimated four million people worldwide.

The play is a three-act drama which takes place on a single night in April 1912, focusing on the prosperous upper middle-class Birling family, who live in a comfortable home in the fictional town of Brumley, “an industrial city in the north Midlands”.

The family is visited by a man calling himself Inspector Goole, who questions the family about the suicide of a young working-class woman in her mid twenties.

Long considered part of the repertory of classic drawing-room theatre, the play has also been hailed as a scathing criticism of the hypocrisies of Victorian and Edwardian English society and as an expression of Priestley’s socialist political principles. The play is studied in many British schools.

“A lot of schools come to see the show,” said Brad. “We were in Southampton a few weeks ago and performed to sell-out audiences. It was a 2,300 seater theatre and it was a sell-out for the whole week. As it is a 105-minute-long production with no interval we wondered how these big groups of teenagers would get on, but they went from chattering away before curtain up to silence. It is very gratifying to know that the cast have captured their attention in such a way.

The original play, which was a stand against the establishment and how people were treated in the mid 1940s, has remained largely unchanged.

“It is still very up-to-date and relevant,” said Brad. “The way it has been put together is very interesting. In the current political climate, it still has got a good message. I am working with a lovely cast and they are really looking forward to coming to Shrewsbury. It will be great to show them around.”

An Inspector Calls opens tomorrow and runs until Saturday.

To book tickets and for more information go to theatresevern.co.uk or call 01743 281281.