Salient: An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 11, No. 10, August 18th, 1948

Drama Club Presents Priestley Time Play

Drama Club Presents Priestley Time Play

J. B. Priestley's "I Have Been Here Before" was a better choice for a major production than they have made for some time. It should have had a wide appeal, but owing to the Philistinism of most students of this college, and of the general public, it did not. I do not mean that it is a good play. I consider that a dramatist should be completely familiar with the material of his play, which is not possible when he uses a borrowed idea which he does not like himself, and he says as much in his introduction.

"I Have Been Here Before" is about Ouspensky's theory of circular time, and the interest is centred too much in the theory, and too little on the characters and situation. Under these circumstances the dramatist falls back into the role of craftsman. However, Priestley is a highly skilled dramatic craftsman—probably more so than anyone else writing in English, today—and as such he knows how to dress up unpromising material in all the dodges of clever stagecraft which make a successful play. He contrives to arrange his characters in all the possible combinations of twos and threes to show the idea of the play from many different angles, and he knows that it is easier to put across an unconventional idea if you use conventional characters. He uses the same device as Emily Bronte did to prevent a mystical plot becoming too unreal to the audience—he makes two of the characters solid, earthy types, who form a bridge between the unreal world of the plot and the real world or the audience. There is no nonsense about Sally and Sam and they are unchanged and almost unaffected by the action of the play.

Production and Players

Dr. J. Kahn produced the play, and he did a very good job with the relatively inexperienced cast and extremely small stage. Some very clever groupings helped to overcome the latter difficulty. The decor was appropriate but not exciting.

Lindsay McDonald's performance as Dr. Gortler was most convincing—so much so that at times I forgot that he was Lindsay McDonald and the worried little refugee professor really lived. Sam, the landlord, was handled well by Pat Hutchings although sometimes his North-country accent was a little too thick to be completely audible. Baska Goodman, as Sally, his widowed daughter, gave the best performance of the evening. As an anxious mother who is also a busy, rather officious landlady, she combined sympathy with an air of matter-of-fact self-confidence.

Walter Ormund, hard-working hard-drinking company director, was played surprisingly well by Arch Barclay. To show the Sailings and misgivings of an obviously strong character is difficult, and his hand-ling of the fluctuations of mood was realistic, especially in the scenes with Dr. Gortler.

Betty James and Paul Treadwell have both given outstanding performances in the Society's productions this year, but I was rather disappointed in them in this play, although I suspect the fault may be largely due to their lines, and to the fact that the behaviour of Mrs. Ormund and Farrant is the most improbable thing in this whole unhappy melodrama. With this handicap, Betty James played the disillusioned wife with commendable sensitivity, and Paul Treadwell, the skeptical schoolmaster with a natural assurance, but how could these two find so much attraction in each other? Surely, even in a time play, people do not fall in love without having better reason, than the fact that they have done so before. .