Time and the Conways NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (388)
See it if you are fascinated by the concept of time and its manipulation or want to see solid acting by the ensemble cast.
Don't see it if you are looking for a light show that doesn't require you to think or need a fast-paced story to hold your interest. Read more
See it if Your a fan of discussion puff family, place/time, and even the butterfly effect.
Don't see it if You detest melodrama. The majority of the play utilizes a stereotypical English pastiche (though there's a good reason).
See it if You want to see a play that is relevant to today
Don't see it if You need a quick. Happy play
See it if You are an Anglophile who likes intelligent old plays.
Don't see it if You didn't like "An Inspector Calls" (Priestley's more famous play) of several years ago. Read more
See it if you want to see a beautifully staged and acted production of a relatively obscure but fascinating play
Don't see it if you have no patience for the old-fashioned three-act structure (one intermission here) or for listening to people discuss ideas Read more
See it if If historic family dramas in a masterpiece Theatre way are of Interest to you. the writing a bit dry and directing pleasent but not riveting
Don't see it if If you hate British dramas like Downton Abbey . It's a bit too long as well. Editing the party scene would have been helpful.
See it if you want to see a great play that shows how the lives of the members of a family can be poisoned by the matriarch.
Don't see it if you want to see a light play that doesn't make you think. Read more
See it if you want to see Elizabeth McGovern on stage; you like family dramas; you enjoy seeing what happens to characters 17 years in the future
Don't see it if you don't like revivals of dated plays; you are confused by the thought of events that happen years apart also exist at the same time
Critic Reviews (54)
"Dredging up a creaky old warhorse from 1937 like J. B. Priestley’s ossified 'Time and the Conways' does seem a bit like digging for fossils in the La Brea tar pits...The play is talky, complicated and second-rate...It’s mechanical and contrived. The current production fails to disguise old weaknesses. It has a creaky fascination when viewed from a curious historical perspective, but no new magic happens to give 'Time and the Conways' the freshness it desperately needs."
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"This forgotten gem of a play pushes the boundaries of its well-heeled drawing room setting into a metaphysical dream world...As deftly handled by director Rebecca Taichman, Priestley’s metaphysics are poignant where, in less able hands, they could come off as annoyingly mystical. And while its 'Downton' connection might fill seats, 'The Conways', despite some superficial period similarities, reveals its own complex pleasures — just give it time."
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"Sad, strange, supernatural, slow, static, stuffy, slight and stilted...An occasionally stimulating, mostly dull production...Except for a handful of striking moments, the play comes off as a boring mishmash of Chekhov’s 'The Cherry Orchard,' Sondheim’s 'Merrily We Roll Along' and, of course, 'Downton Abbey.' Perhaps it would work better with an all-English cast that possesses ensemble unity. Here, the performances are uneven – and so are the accents."
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"A beautifully realized production...Its bittersweet message bridges 8 decades with a profound and timely resonance...By Act 3, returning to 1919 we see these flawed characters through a magnified lens; effectively creating a mirror for the rest of us to see ourselves...Each of the actors delivers highly nuanced portraits with individual moments to shine...A deeply personal work baring the universal theme that there is no joy without the woe."
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"Undoubtedly, there will be theatergoers who delight in the guarded banter of the Conway family...The rest of us will just be bored. 'Time and the Conways' doesn't really get interesting until halfway through the second act...Director Taichman's production presents Priestley's timeline with inexorable precision and a twinge of sadness...The performances are also satisfying, if slightly indulgent in that way British drawing room dramas encourage...It's not 'Downton Abbey', but it will do."
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"If those late 1930s audiences only knew, as audiences at Taichman's graceful and visually surprising Roundabout production now know, the even greater horrors that would lie ahead. The playwright plays with time in a manner that pulls at emotions...Taichman offers the audience entrancing glimpses of how human existence can transcend time...Plays like 'Time and the Conways' offer warnings from the past about the possibilities for the future."
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"'Conways' never escapes a certain dullness for the simple reason that few of his people come alive...The director, Rebecca Taichman, has handled these dramatic goods sensitively and with enormous skill; if she can't make this play work, one wonders if anyone could. Her cast is beyond reproach...'Conways,' even in a production as elegant as this, is a dramatized theory, populated by action figures masquerading as real human beings."
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"The characters, themes, and subject matter of 'Time and the Conways' are involving enough that the play would no doubt be worthy even without its shifting chronology, but that element makes it an extraordinary work...Any production of this play rises or falls on the ability of the artists involved to make the audience fully believe we are seeing slices of the Conways lives in two different eras 18 years apart. Taichman and her exceptionally talented cast deftly create the illusion."
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