Time and the Conways

I've been reading up on playwright J. B. Priestley's "Time Plays" of which this is one.

In it we join the 21st birthday celebration party of Kay, middle daughter of the fictional Northern town of Newlingham's esteemed and prosperous Conway family. The year is 1919 and in this post-war period, with the return of peace, soldiers de-mobbing, families reuniting and prosperity on the up, you would think that all in the garden is rosy, as the matriarchal mother figure presides over the gathering which also includes a smattering of family friends and plus-ones

The Conway children, who number six, individually divulge their hopes and plans for the future, so far as they've made any at all. These mostly comprise expectations of marital bliss with the right partner but one daughter plans to be a novelist, another a social campaigner while the youngest and least affected of their number, the bright 18-year-old Carol dreams of the stage but most of all just living her life to the full.

Even here we see the cracks beginning to appear in the "one big happy family" edifice, as we reach the end of the first act with birthday girl Kay bemoaning her lot to the unassuming and underachieving older brother Alan and fearing for the future of the family.

Act two then fades in and we're aware from both her and then the other characters' appearances that nearly twenty years have somehow passed. The splintered family has been called back to the big house to discuss the poor state of mother's finances which naturally impacts on the future expectations and aspirations of her children in their collective middle-age.

It's fair to say that on the eve of another world war, the passage of time in the intervening years has not gone well for any of them with the biggest shock being the revealed death of the "baby" of the family, Carol. In this act we see the almost complete disintegration of the ties that formerly bound them together with everyone in various degrees of unhappiness.

With this surprising and depressing glimpse into the future we're then brought back to the first time-frame for a downbeat ending with the informed Kay and oldest brother Alan struggling to see the positives in life but hoping against hope that the circle of life as it came to be known will work in their favour in the time left to them all.

This 1985 production from the BBC Drama Unit stays almost completely faithful to the text and with no incidental music of any kind, unsurprisingly has a filmed-play look and feel to it. This, though I think is to be commended for allowing the play to be viewed as the writer intended. The ensemble acting is excellent as we view the disintegration of this well-to-do family, whose wealth and social position can't protect them from the intrusive effects of human weakness, thwarted ambitions and bad choices.

I enjoyed this production very much and was glad to track down this television staging of the play as unlike the same author's "Dangerous Corner" and his best-known work "An Inspector Calls", both of which touch on similar themes and also feature imaginative treatment of the concept of time, this one has never being made into a movie feature.

Well worth tracking down on YouTube.

Just saw this for the first time in some thirty years... Priestley wrote three 'Time' plays: "Dangerous Corners" is the best known other one (I think). He's also the author of "An Inspector Calls" which manages to be paranormal without spooky.

As for this one ..we meet the Conways in 1919, at a daughter's 21st birthday. The Conways are attractive, well-liked, affluent, and survived the war well (with the exception of the father). They banter with each other, tease each other a little - brother Robin comes home that night, friend Gerald brings in a man who's been dying to meet them...

Then we're twenty years later; the teasing and bickering is now with malice. Some of the daughters married badly, careers went awry, there's been a death, the family is on hard times.

Then we're back to 1919 again - and now we see where the second act came from. We now see the effects of the words and actions that the characters do in this 'past' that we know will affect the future we've seen.

It's a clever play - Priestly wrote some excellent books and drama. There's a touch of melodrama in it, and maybe some fatalism - but the content will stay with you. The acting (as are most British plays of this vintage) is superb. Claire Bloom (as the mother) is wonderfully touching, then catty, then dominant, the manipulative.

Well worth a look. Let's pray for the DVD - the 'youtube' print is welcome but the quality isn't the best.