Time and the Conways

Time and the Conways is a play by English writer J. B. Priestley, first performed in 1937 at the Duchess Theatre in London's West End and had a brief run at the Ritz Theatre on Broadway in 1938. It is one of Priestley's "Time Plays" illustrating J. W. Dunne theory of time through the experience of a moneyed Yorkshire family, the Conways, over a period of nineteen years from 1919 to 1937.

Act Two

 * Kay: Remember what we once were and what we thought we'd be. And now this. And it's all we have, Allan, it's us. Every step we've taken—every tick of the clock—making everything worse. If this is all life is, what's the use? Better to die, like Carol, before you find it out, before Time gets to work on you. I've felt it before, Allan, but never as I've done tonight. There's a great devil in the universe, and we call it Time.


 * Kay: I'll try to understand . . . so long as you really believe—and think it's possible for me to believe—that Time's not ticking our lives away . . . wrecking . . . and ruining everything . . . for ever . . . Alan: No, it's all right, Kay. I'll get you that book. You know, I believe that half our trouble now is because we think Time's ticking our lives away. That's why we snatch and grab and hurt each other. Kay: As if we were all in a panic on a sinking ship. Alan: Yes, it's like that. Kay: But you don't do those things—bless you! Alan: I think it's easier not to—if you take a long view. Kay: As if we're—immortal beings? Alan: Yes, and in for a tremendous adventure.