Time and the Conways is a British play by J. B. Priestley that was first performed in 1937. Like several of Priestley’s other works, it centres around a family gathering and it’s interested in the nature of time, and how time changes people.
The first act is set in the Conways’ house on the night of Kay Conway’s 21st birthday party. Her sisters - Madge, Carol and Hazel - are planning a game of charades for the guests; their widowed mother is enjoying the party. Their brother Alan is helping things to run smoothly, their brother Robin is unexpectedly back after the war, just in time for the celebration. There’s a mood of optimism and energy now that the way is over.
The second act keeps the same room as its setting, but jumps forward to 1937 (which was the present day when the play was first performed) and Kay’s 40th birthday. The mood is bleak, a new war is approaching and this future has not been kind to the Conways.
The third and final act returns to 1919, resuming where the first act ended. This time the atmosphere is a little darker, and the audience start to see the actions that set the family on their path to that unhappy future.
Provides examples of:
- Anachronic Order: From 1919 to 1937, then back again.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Conways of 1937 qualify. They’ve drifted apart, they’re generally unhappy, and there are some bitter divisions.
- Domestic Abuse: The details stay offstage, but in 1937 Hazel is clearly terrified of her abusive husband Ernest.
- Family Disunion: The 1937 gathering is not a happy one.
- Foreshadowing:
- In 1919, Hazel’s first reaction to Ernest Beevers - based purely on his name, before they meet - is to joke that "I’m sorry for his wife if he has one". In 1937, she’s unhappily married to him and very scared of her husband.
- In the first act, Kay talks about the men her brother Alan knew in the trenches, and how some of them had premonitions of their deaths. In the third act, when the play jumps back to 1919, it’s Kay who seems to keep some sort of vague memory of the unhappy future of 1937.
- I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Alan realises that Joan has feelings for Robin and steps out of the way. Unfortunately, a life with Robin really doesn’t make her happy.
- Killed Offscreen: Carol Conway, who dies during the Time Skip between the first two acts.
- Love-Obstructing Parents: Mrs Conway knowingly spoils a conversation between Gerald and Madge, derailing a growing attraction.
- Parental Favoritism: Mrs Conway sees Robin as the child who’s most like her, is blind to his faults, and has spent much of her savings (and his siblings’ inheritance) covering his debts by 1937.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Carol’s death has elements of this, with Beevers in 1937 directly stating that she was the best of the Conways.
