I Have Been Here Before – Alma Tavern Theatre

Axbridge Community Theare brings J.B. Priestley’s play I Have Been Here Before to the Alma Tavern Theatre.

A woman, her husband and a young headmaster meet a mysterious professor at an isolated pub.

His probing enquiries reveal that all three are unhappy and confused. They’ve been repeating the same old scenes, with catastrophic consequences.

Now, finally, is there a chance to break out of the loop?

Like Priestley’s famous An Inspector Calls, this 1937 “time play” was influenced by contemporary ideas in science and philosophy. How does Dr Gortler know which characters are headed for disaster? Do we really have the free will to change the course of events? Or are our lives essentially pre-determined?

An imperturbable landlord and his spiky daughter add observations on social class into the mix. The whole cast react differently to the arrival of an eccentric foreigner. This all adds up to much more than the average “spooky pub” mystery. We may be watching in 2026, but somehow, disturbingly, we sense we’ve been here before.