Play: I Have Been Here Before

Overview
J.B. Priestley’s 1937 play I Have Been Here Before is one of his celebrated “Time Plays,” a group of dramas that probe fate, choice, and moral responsibility through unconventional conceptions of time. Drawing on ideas akin to P. D. Ouspensky’s theory of recurrence, the play imagines lives that loop through similar patterns, with rare individuals capable of remembering enough to steer events onto a different course. The result is both a tense chamber drama and a philosophical inquiry into whether people can break free from destructive habits and histories.

Setting and characters
The action unfolds over a single weekend in a country inn on the Yorkshire moors. The innkeeper and his practical, good-hearted daughter preside as disparate guests converge: a brisk, self-assured businessman and his unsettled wife, and a sensitive young schoolmaster who arrives, by chance, just as old emotional currents begin to stir. Into this ordinary social mix steps an extraordinary figure: Dr. Görtler, a reserved, intense German émigré, whose probing questions and uncanny knowledge unsettle everyone present. He claims no authority in conventional terms, yet behaves as if he has known these people, in this place, at this moment, before.

Plot summary
At first, the weekend has the air of a typical holiday escape: small talk in the taproom, the wind off the moor, the promise of walks and rest. But Dr. Görtler’s presence changes the atmosphere. He hints that the group is entangled in a pattern that has played out previously, with a chain of choices leading to emotional betrayal, humiliation, and a fatal act. He refuses outright prophecy, yet he reveals personal details about the guests, habits, fears, even private resentments, that he could not plausibly know, and he warns that a crisis is imminent unless they examine themselves and choose differently.

The businessman’s authority and pride mask insecurity and a sense of ownership over his wife; the wife feels stifled and hungry for regard; the schoolmaster, idealistic and solitary, is drawn to her with a depth that startles them both. In the earlier cycle, Görtler implies, their attraction, the husband’s wounded vanity, and the schoolmaster’s despair formed a fuse that burned to disaster. Now, he urges self-knowledge and moral courage. The innkeeper’s daughter, with plainspoken warmth, steadies the situation, reminding everyone that kindness can redirect a day as surely as a storm can alter a path across the moor.

As tensions crest, the pivotal decisions arrive. The husband must choose between possessiveness and generosity; the wife between concealment and candor; the schoolmaster between romanticized surrender and resilient honesty. Spurred by Görtler’s grave compassion, and by their own flashes of recognition, they step away from the old pattern. The catastrophe is averted. When the danger has passed, Dr. Görtler confesses that his own past failures made him intervene: having “been here before,” he could not bear to watch the same ruin unfold. He departs quietly, leaving an afterglow of relief and chastened hope.

Themes and ideas
Priestley fuses metaphysical speculation with social ethics. The notion of recurrence interrogates determinism: if life loops, are we doomed to repeat ourselves, or can an awakened will redirect events? The play argues for the possibility of change through truth-telling, empathy, and responsibility, while exposing the corrosive effects of pride, class conceit, and emotional cowardice. Memory, whether literal or intuitive, becomes a moral instrument, allowing characters to recognize the pattern they are in and to choose otherwise.

Form and legacy
Confined to a single setting and time frame, the drama builds suspense through conversation and revelation rather than spectacle. Dr. Görtler functions as a catalyst and a conscience, akin to later Priestley figures who push characters to reckon with themselves. I Have Been Here Before stands as a deft blend of moorland realism and metaphysical fable, insisting that even if time circles back, character and compassion can bend its curve.