The most important Hungarian theatrical debate in Transylvania during the “thaw” period after Stalin’s death was sparked by the 1958 restaging of the Váratlan vendég (An Inspector Calls) production at the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj, as reported in the literary, artistic, and critical weekly Utunk. Anatol Constantin’s direction, with its then-unconventional stage solutions, perplexed and divided the critics: some called it bold and experimental, while others labelled it gratuitously sensationalist. My study examines how the theatrical performance and its subsequent canonisation debate shaped the socialist-realist theatrical canon promoted by the authorities and how this reevaluation emerged in Utunk’s critical discourse.