Fire and Blood
Fire and Blood is a sequel to J B Priestley’s play An Inspector Calls. It is in three Acts. The title is taken from the closing words spoken by Inspector Goole in Priestley’s play, when he admonishes the Birlings that unless they change their ways (and stop behaving in the selfish manner which brought Eva Smith to her doom) they will have to learn the lesson to behave responsibly and with compassion “in fire and blood and anguish.” This is usually taken as a thinly-veiled allusion to the First World War, which breaks out about two years after the events of An Inspector Calls (since Goole’s warning goes unheeded).
Act 1 is set on Christmas Eve 1915 at the Birlings’ house. Mr and Mrs Birling are awaiting the arrival of their son, Eric, now a junior officer in the Army. He arrives late, but not before Gerald Croft, who shows up unexpectedly. Gerald is a captain on the Staff, and appears to be doing well. He still has feelings for Sheila Birling, which Mr Birling, still keen to one day welcome him as his son-in-law, is sympathetic towards. When Eric eventually appears, they all go in to dine.
Mr Birling we learn has switched his clothing factory to manufacturing uniforms and battledress for the Army, and is making good profits. There is discussion about the way the war is going, and Gerald and Mr Birling take an optimistic view, Eric shows a more cynical side. However, after a certain amount of wrangling, a toast is drunk to a more successful year for Britain in 1916.
Act 2 scene 1 is set in a field hospital in France, where Sheila Birling is working as a VAD. A wounded man, Sergeant John Smith, is brought in. She talks with him while dressing his wound and learns to her surprise that he is from Brumley. A certain mutual attraction is evident, though Sheila is a little shaken by his Brumley connection, as it reminds her of her role in the Eva Smith affair some four years previously (though she does not openly mention this).
Scene 2 shifts to Divisional HQ in France. Gerald has a role in the planning of the coming Somme Offensive. He discusses the plans with his superior, a Lieutenant Colonel. Both men are optimistic of success in the battle ahead.
In scene 3, we are in a British dugout on the Somme, where Eric Birling and fellow officers discuss the war. Eric’s fondness for the bottle, seen in Priestley’s play, is still in evidence. There is a certain amount of raillery when Eric reveals that his father owns a successful business making uniforms for the British Army.
Act 3 opens back at the Brumley’s residence, where a tea party for wounded servicemen is taking place. Mrs Birling has switched her charitable impulses in this patriotic direction, and Mr Birling is pleased to offer the soldiers tea at his expense.
Gerald arrives, again unexpectedly, and they speak optimistically of the Somme offensive, which has just got under way. Mr Birling seizes the opportunity to broach his hopes that Gerald will resign his commission and shortly take over as head of Birling and Croft (the two one-time rivals having previously merged, as Birling said in 1912 “for lower prices and higher profits.”
Another unexpected arrival occurs – Sheila, together with her fiance, sergeant John Smith. Birling and Mrs Birling are horrified to learn that Sheila plans to marry this (to them) social nonentity, but Sheila is entirely unrepentant. Gerald is also deeply shaken to realise that any hopes he entertained of Sheila and he getting back together are now clearly at an end. Sheila has forgiven him for the way he behaved in 1912, but can never love him again.
Just as the characters are digesting this turn of events, there is one final unexpected appearance – Eric, who claims he has managed to get some home leave (despite the Somme needing every available man). He seems a little drunk, and there looks to be a distinct risk of him causing a scene – which he does, by fetching Gerald a tremendous slap across the face, before walking out. Birling is horrified and outraged, and orders some of the soldiers present to go after Eric and bring him back. However, they return shortly to say he has vanished. A telegram arrives. It reports that Eric Birling has been killed in action on the first day of the Somme. The implication is that the Eric who visited was in fact a ghost, his stinging blow against Gerald a kind of rebuke from the soldiers whose lives were sacrificed by the incompetent Staff (of whom Gerald, who never really hit it off with Eric) is a representative.
The play grew out of my having taught An Inspector Calls as a GCSE Literature text for many years. It was quite easy to imagine what Priestley’s characters would do in the Great War, based on his portrayals of them in his classic text. The moral message delivered by Goole (a message that is taken on board by Eric and Sheila, but not by Arthur, Sybil or Gerald) hangs over the action of Fire and Blood, though there is only brief allusion made to this towards the end of the play, as once again the main characters are confronted with the implication of their moral (or immoral) choices…
