J. B. Priestley – Three Time-Plays

J. B. Priestley, who is acknowledged internationally to be among the best playwrights of our time, explains in a Note specially written for this volume that the three plays here included are linked together by interest in the problem of Time. „Each play deals with Time in an unusual way, but not in the same way. Each rejects the ordinary conception of Time, but each offers its own particular solution of the problem.”

In „Dangerous Corner” the author assumes the possibility of the split in the time-process, so that from a given moment two alternative series of events are open to his group of people who face a parting of the ways. „Time and the Conways” was inspired by the theory of „repetitive” Time put forward by J. W. Dunne and called by him „Serialism.” Finally, „I Have Been Here Before” is based on an idea of a „circular time” recurring in human existence, although those concerned may with great effort divert the curve of repeated disaster.

Even readers who have little interest in the philosophical aspect of these plays will be enthralled by their dramatic qualities. The characters are such as we meet in our everyday life; the situations are tense and exciting; and the plays, like Mr. Priestley’s novels from The Good Companions onward, are exceptionally „readable”. These dramas have been produced with enormous succes in many different countries.   źródło opisu: Pan Books, 1949 źródło okładki: www.tikit.net