Time and the Conways

Considered a masterpiece of classic British drama, “Time and the Conways” looks at the shifting fortunes and fate of a middleclass English family in the years between the First and Second World Wars. A play which explores the nature of time, this is a poignant and compelling portrait of a family in decline – but with a twist in the tale.

Time and the Conways is set in a most interesting structure, anticipating the non-linear shapes of playwrights that were to follow and taking its cue from earlier experiments in expressionism. Act One is set in 1919, just after the Great War (in which Conway pere died); Act Two flashes forward two decades to the post-depression mid-thirties; Act Three returns to 1919, but now the audience perceives the actions of the family in light of what we know will happen. A rather neat and thorough use of dramatic irony woven into the very fabric of the play. Priestly's structure allows the action of the play to make explicit social commentary about what we now call "the period between the wars". The collapse of industry in the town where the Conways were once a solid part of the upper middle class has left Mrs. Conway close to penury, mightily aided by the profligate behavior of her son as well as her own unwillingness to face the realities of the contemporary world. When Priestly takes us back to 1919 and the return of Robin from the War, our foreknowledge of what lies ahead creates an heightened tension to close the evening.