I HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE. To 6 March.

Eye

I HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE
by J.B. Priestley

Eye Theatre To 6 March 2004
Tue-Sat 8pm Mat Sat 4pm
Runs 2hr 20min One interval

TICKETS: 01379 870519
01449 676800 (credit cards only)
boxoffice@eyetheatre.freeserve.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 25 February

Eye does Priestley proud it's the sort of place he'd have loved to see his plays.This is almost a site-specific production. The theatre in Eye, Suffolk, is public, but feels like someone's large living-room, incorporating a fireplace - used here, as in the theatre's last Priestley production, Dangerous Corner, for part of the set.

The auditorium doors are left open, giving a view of the foyer and staircase to the theatre's private upper level - all standing in beautifully for the reception and staircase of the Black Bull, Priestley's small North Yorkshire hotel.

If he's a writer whose time's come round, that fits the play, which imports P.D. Ouspensky's idea that an individual's life recurs, giving a chance to access a higher level in the corkscrew of existence. Somehow this idea, spelled out by the émigré German Gortler, never feels as inhabited by Priestley as does the different idea of time as another dimension, absorbed from J.W. Dunne into his simultaneously-running Time and the Conways.

But a play which could even to its quotation title - be a thesis has strong humanity, helped here by Richard Gofton's Gortler. An émigré from the Nazis, (implicitly - Mr Chamberlain was still to treat with Herr Hitler), Gortler unsteadies one of the black Bull's managers, Sally. She's nervous for her son, who in turn depends upon headteacher Oliver Farrant.

And he's dependent upon wealthy businessman Walter Ormund's funding for the school, anchoring the time notions in solid social interdependence.

Gofton's Gortler is humanised by the hurt he feels from others' unkindness, while continuing to show urgent concern for the consequences he knows will follow unwise decisions by other participants in this merry-go-round.

Tom Scott's sympathetic production reflects Priestley's understanding; people make mistakes, but none is contemptible. Fiona Staniland finds Sally's nuances of anxiety and hopefulness; Graham Bill's every inch the solid, stolid Yorkshire landlord, in whose presence no notion seems airy-fairy.

If Philip Stevens and William Halliday don't quite match them, its only the transitions to high-impact emotion in Ormund that seem contrived, while Farrant the stressed headteacher - is always awkward to pitch. Complex frustration, hope and stirrings of love soon bring Joanna Dunn's Janet fully to life.

Sally Pratt: Fiona Staniland
Sam Shipley: Graham Bill
Dr Gortler: Richard Gofton
Oliver Farrant: Philip Stevens
Janet Ormund: Joanna Dunn
Walter Ormund: William Halliday

Director: Tom Scott
Lighting: David Hermon

2004-03-02 08:03:22