I Have Been Here Before

I Have Been Here Before is a play by J. B. Priestley, first produced by Lewis Casson at the Royalty Theatre, London, on 22 September 1937.

Plot introduction

At a rural inn on a Yorkshire moor, three people become involved in a strange confrontation with the hallmarks of déjà vu, and a physicist attempts to prevent a disaster.

Plot summary

Act I

Sam and his daughter Sally, proprietors of the Black Bull Inn, are awaiting the arrival of guests when an elderly German professor stops to make enquiries. The inn is booked out; he asks unusual questions about the people staying at the inn, but his conjectures appear to be wrong. Shortly after he is turned away, the three women they had been expecting cancel their bookings by telephone. Sally is annoyed at the cancellation, but almost immediately they receive another telephone call from Mr and Mrs Ormund, a wealthy couple who book two rooms.

Their other guest, the schoolmaster Oliver Farrant, returns from a walk, and is closely followed by the professor, who has seen him enter. The professor introduces himself as Dr Görtler, a German refugee, and asks eagerly for a room.

When the Ormunds arrive, Mr Farrant is startled to realise that they are his new employers; the Ormunds are starting a school, and have already appointed him as headmaster. They chat briefly, but Mr Ormund does not take to him, and expresses reservations to his wife. Dr Görtler joins the Ormunds and unnerves them by asking strangely accurate questions about their feelings of déjà vu. When Görtler has gone to bed, Sally explains to the other guests the inexplicably successful predictions the professor had made that afternoon about their identities.

Act II

Mr Farrant and Mrs Ormund go out walking for the day. In their absence, Dr Görtler interrogates Mr Ormund about his life. His probing into Mr Ormund's emotional state induces the unhappy man to make a quasi-suicide attempt, fetching a revolver from his car and firing it into the ground.

Upset by Dr Görtler's questions and by his expounding of a doctrine of eternal return to the landlord and guests, Sally and Mr Ormund demand that he leaves.

When Mr Farrant and Mrs Ormund come back from their walk, they admit to each other that they have studiously avoided crossing paths all day, in an unconscious attempt to fend off the fatalistic sense that they are doomed to deceive Mr Ormund. As the clock chimes, they embrace.

Act III

Mr Farrant examines Dr Görtler's forgotten notebook. When Mr Ormund arrives, Mr Farrant and Mrs Ormund announce that they are leaving together. The sense of déjà vu is so overpowering that all of their emotional reactions are muted. Dr Görtler returns for his notebook, and explains to them that he was brought here by a precognitive dream: this pair would elope, Mr Ormund would commit suicide, the school would fold, and the lives would be ruined of all concerned.

As a result of Dr Görtler's intervention, there is no suicide. Mr Farrant and Mrs Ormund leave, but Mr Ormund takes the blow calmly, realising that his life has been saved.

Characters
  • Sally Pratt
  • Sam Shipley
  • Dr Görtler
  • Oliver Farrant
  • Janet Ormund
  • Walter Ormund

References to other works

The play was inspired by conjectures in P. D. Ouspensky's book A New Model of the Universe (1931). Ouspensky had already expressed these ideas in fiction with Strange Life of Ivan Osokin (1915, translated 1947).

1964 Australian TV Adaptation
I Have Been Here Before
Based onplay by J.B. Priestley
Directed byKen Hannam
Country of originAustralia
Original languageEnglish
Production
Running time75 mins[1]
Production companyABC
DistributorABC
Release
Original networkABC
Original release29 January 1964 (Sydney)[2]
5 February 1964 (Melbourne)[3]
24 March 1964 (Brisbane)[4]

It was filmed for Australian TV in 1964.[5] It was directed by Ken Hannam.[6][7]

Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.[8] It aired in Melbourne on 5 February 1964.[9]

Premise

It is set at an inn on the Yorkshire moors. Hotelier Walter Ormond and daughter Janet are looking forward to a busy few days. One guest has already arrived, Oliver Farrant, a headmaster on leave. Oliver falls for Janet. Three women are expected. Dr Gorthler, a professor driven into exile by the Nazis, arrives. Dr Gortler knows about their past and has a way of controlling their future.

Cast

Production

It was shot at the ABC's studies at Gore Hill.[10]

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald said "Ken Hannam's production was throughout notable for its scrupulous craftsmanship of scene and effect" and called it "one of the ABC's most impressive local productions."[11]

The production prompted a letter of complaint from Frank Roberts to the Sydney Morning Herald complaining about the ABC's tendency to present photographed stage plays in TV drama.[12]

References
  1. "TV Guide". Sydney Morning Herald. 29 January 1964. p. 7.
  2. "TV Guide". 27 January 1964. p. 18.
  3. "Local and overseas play productions". The Age. 30 January 1964. p. 25.
  4. "Hotel guests take journey into time". TV Times. 26 February 1964. p. 12.
  5. 1964 TV adaptation
  6. "On ABC-3". The Canberra Times. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 29 January 1964. p. 29. Retrieved 4 February 2020 – via Trove.
  7. "No title". The Canberra Times. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 28 January 1964. p. 15. Retrieved 4 February 2020 – via Trove. Cite uses generic title (help)
  8. Vagg, Stephen (February 18, 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  9. "Local and Overseas Play Productions". The Age. 30 January 1964. p. 13.
  10. Marshall, Valda (26 January 1964). "TV Merry Go Round". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 64.
  11. "Priestley Play". Sydney Morning Herald. January 30, 1964. p. 9.
  12. Roberts, Frank (8 February 1964). "A New Drama for Television". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 2.
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