Stage Directions

• Mr Birling - "heavy-looking, rather portentous man"
• Mr Birling - "rather provincial in this speech"
• Mrs Birling - "rather cold woman"
• Mrs Birling - "her husband's social superior"
• Sheila - "pretty girl in her early twenties"
• Sheila - "very pleased with life and rather excited"
• Gerald - "attractive chap about thirty"
• Gerald - "rather too manly to be a dandy"
• Gerald - "very much the well-bred young man-about-town"
• Eric - "not quite at ease"
• Eric - "half shy, half assertive"
• "Mrs Birling shows signs of interrupting"
• "we hear the sharp ring of a door bell. Birling stops to listen"
• Inspector - "The inspector need not be a big man but he creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness"
• Inspector - "speaks carefully, weightily, and has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking"
• Inspector - "cutting through, massively"
• "Gerald and Eric exchange uneasy glances. The inspector ignores them"
• "The doors slowly opens and the inspector appears, looking steadily and searchingly at them"
• Sheila - "with hysterical laugh, to Gerald"
• Inspector - "massively taking charge"
• "sheila gives short hysterical laugh"
• "Birling and Mrs Birling exchange bewildered and rather frightened glances"
• "Eric enters, looking extremely pale and distressed"
• "Inspector holds up a hand. We hear the front door"
• "As Birling looks like interrupting explosively"
• "His whole manner of handling the decanter and then the drink shows his familiarity with quick heavy drinking"
• "He walks straight out, leaving them staring, subdued and wondering"
• "Eric laughs rather hysterically, pointing at him."
• "Birling wipes his brow, Sheila shivers, Eric clasps and unclasps his hand"
• "The telephone rings sharply"
• "As they stare guiltily and dumbfounded, the curtain falls"