Time and the Conways by JB Priestley opened in the Lyttelton Theatre on 5 May and we sent Entry Pass reviewers Lis Meyers, Rebecca Burnett and Jon Rowe to check it out. Read their reviews below

"There is a great devil in the universe and we call it time," says Kay in JB Priestly's Time and the Conways, as she regards the battered state of her family and recalls days gone by when they had their whole lives ahead of them. The play is a true warning against growing up, as time and age is anything but kind to the Conway family.

Set in the inter-war years, Priestly first introduces us to the affluent Conway family shortly after the end of World War I on the eve of Kay's 21st birthday. Set in one room of the large Conway house, the family stages charades, gossips about crushes, and dreams about the rose-tinted future after the war. Little do we know that the seeds of the family's discontent and demise are soon to be planted.

It is during the second act, and arguably the most breathtaking part of the play, where we witness the unraveling effects of time upon the family. Jumping forward twenty years in the future, again on Kay's birthday, the family is reunited for a family meeting. On the eve of a new war, dreams have withered and each character is very much changed. Once joyous and loving, familial interactions are now strained and casually brutal. 

For the final act, the playwright returns reverses the hands of time and brings us back to where the first act left off. The Conways continue with their merry ways, yet nothing is the same - for the Conways or the audience.

In playing with time, Priestly has set a formidable task for the play's actors who each must play two very different roles in one (literally). The transformation of each character is remarkable, with each actor pulling off the 20-year jump in time with great ease, skill, and nuance. Performances by Hattie Morahan (Kay) and Lydia Leonard (Hazel) are particularly noteworthy.

The Conways are not the dysfunctional family of August: Osage Country, rather, they are the every-family; these scenes could be taking place in your own living room, this life could be happening to you. It is for this reason that the play is so resonating, for its honesty and disconcerting applicability across time and family. There are moments at the end of the second act and particularly at the play's conclusion that are truly haunting, sticking with you long after you've left your seats and re-emerged into the real world.

Lis Meyers

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Time and the Conways is the revived tale of a loving family and their joyful home sequentially eroded by Time and decisions. 

The play is divided into three acts with the intent of diminishing the generally static view of Time by playing with the notion of past, present and future. Influenced by concepts from J.W.Dune's book An Experiment With Time, the play seemingly travels through time to glimpse at what is to become of the family.

Set in the period between the two World Wars, the play begins at Kay Conways' 21st birthday and then travels forward to her 40th birthday, to eventually return to her 21st again. The stark disparity between the two events is greatly emphasized through every aspect, from the general attitude to the costumes and even the wallpaper. The contrast is so obviously stressed that it left me expecting a greater twist to the tale, which was sadly never delivered. However, the array of strong theatrical performances can be commended and the play successfully offers comical moments throughout; noticeably when a reference is made to the struggling economy.

To the director's (Rupert Goold) credit, the play ends with wonderful cinematic flare, with the use of surreal video affects. However, your attention is more focused on how this affect is achieved technically, rather than the lessons to be learnt about Time and our attitude towards it.

Seventy-two years after its original debut Time and the Conways is essentially applicable to audiences past, present and indeed future, owing to its central theme of the ubiquitous Time. However, it is questionable whether this version is a contemporary offering to explore the ideology of Time, or merely a chance for contemporary audiences to see a J. B. Priestley play.  Either way, the play is visually pleasing and reflects an intriguing concept.

Rebecca Burnett

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Directed with exuberant optimism and packed with solid performances, Rupert Goold's production zips along on tightrope between explosive joy and profound sadness.

Time and the Conways (1937), as with Dangerous Corner (1932) and An Inspector Calls (1946) seeks to explore Priestley's ideas regarding the nature of time. The play presents a snapshot of a large bourgeois family on a gust of post-WWI frivolity, a look at the same almost twenty years later, and brings us back again with foreknowledge of their so-called future.

With a cast that bring such diversity of energy and dialogue so pervaded with Priestley's dry wit, the play feels much less than it's almost 3hrs. Unfortunately the characters feel a carefully crafted selection of social and political types rather than shifting points on the human spectrum: the old-fashioned but well-meaning Mrs Conway is played with gusto and humour by Annis and the intellectually accomplished but emotionally fragile Kay is portrayed with some dynamism if a little overly stylised. The rest of the company form a micro-society including a standout turn from Scarborough as a somewhat Dickensian, repugnant businessman on the way up.

End of act set pieces including mobile sets, intricate choreography, and intelligent use of sound and video add to the snappy performances to provide an engaging experience. But technical jiggery-pokery fails to hide the structural simplicity and somewhat contrived diversity of the characters. And the text fails to match the intense imagination of the Blake passages it gleefully quotes.

Jon Rowe