Show ended
Now this is an interesting proposition. Prior to Stephen Daldry’s makeover that made it a play for today, most people would have dismissed An Inspector Calls as an old theatrical warhorse and one that probably should have long been put out to grass. So maybe Dominic Cooke can do the same for Emlyn Williams's play about a school teacher, Miss Moffat (played here by Nicola Walker, currently on BBC screens in the final season of The Split), who arrives in a small village in turn of the century Wales determined to set up a school. In the 1938 premiere, Miss Moffat was played by Sybil Thorndike, but there has been no major revival since the early 1990s when the role was taken by Patricia Routledge. Even then, the play was perceived as dated in construction and some of its attitudes. But if Cooke can reinvent it, it’s possible that the NT may have an unexpected winner.
Miss Lily Moffat arrives in rural North Wales, determined to help young local miners out of poverty by teaching them to read and write. Lily soon spots talent in the unruly Morgan Evans, but when she faces growing resistance from the community, she does everything in her power to forge him a new future. Emlyn Williams’ semi-autobiographical play, is given a bold new staging by director Dominic Cooke (The Normal Heart, Follies) in its first London revival for 35 years. Nicola Walker (Unforgotten, The Split) plays the visionary Miss Moffat.