At the crossroads between time and place: performing boxes in Priestley’s Dangerous Corner
In Dangerous Corner, one of J. B. Priestley’s “ time plays”, the playwright places an object, a musical cigarette box, at the centre of his experiment with time. The box is indeed the place where Priestley’s philosophy of time crystallizes out : as the plot unfolds and branches out from a whodunit i...
Wedi'i Gadw mewn:
| Cyhoeddwyd yn: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc, |
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| Fformat: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Iaith: | Anglais |
| Cyhoeddwyd: |
Études britanniques contemporaines
2019
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| Mynediad Ar-lein: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:ebc_5973 |
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openedition |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:ebc_5973 https://doi.org/10.4000/ebc.5973 urn:doi:10.4000/ebc.5973 en https://journals.openedition.org/ebc/5973 2019-04-05T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/fe8j https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ At the crossroads between time and place: performing boxes in Priestley’s Dangerous Corner Études britanniques contemporaines Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2271-5444 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1168-4917 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc Fortin-Tournès, Anne-Laure In Dangerous Corner, one of J. B. Priestley’s “ time plays”, the playwright places an object, a musical cigarette box, at the centre of his experiment with time. The box is indeed the place where Priestley’s philosophy of time crystallizes out : as the plot unfolds and branches out from a whodunit into a metatheatre moment which deflates the whodunnit as pure fiction, the box is de-objectified, it becomes a fictitious thing, so that the spectator has to revise his judgement and consider it under a new angle. Thus, the box undergoes a process of becoming which makes it appear as anamorphic, moving in time rather than in space. As it is derealised and dematerialised, the box questions our assumptions about the capacity of theatrical representation to present reality on stage. Turned into a wavering signifier, the musical cigarette box leaves it open for the spectator to decide which is the real play, the whodunnit or the self- reflexive ending. Equally, the box makes it possible for us to experience two contradictory sequences of time simultaneously, and to enjoy the unique sensation of being immersed both in chronological objective time and in the intensive time of art. Dangerous Corner de J.B. Priestley fait jouer aux objets un rôle tout à fait singulier dans l’économie de la représentation théâtrale. La boîte à cigarettes musicale qui circule dans la pièce, en particulier, est placée au croisement des deux genres qui sont convoqués dans Dangerous Corner: celui de l’enquête policière, et celui du métathéâtre. Elle constitue un pivot pour la définition par le dramaturge de son art comme art du temps. Soumise à un processus de devenir-chose, la boîte se déréalise au cours de la pièce, perd son aspect objectif pour devenir un signifiant ambigu de la fictionnalité théâtrale. Elle permet aussi au spectateur de faire l’expérience simultanée de deux séquences temporelles irréconciliables: celle du temps chronologique de la reconstitution objective des faits passés qui se modélise sur le temps de l’Histoire, et celle du temps intensif de la création artistique tel qu’elle se trouve à l’œuvre dans la représentation fictionnelle. Ainsi, la boîte que Priestley met en scène dans Dangerous Corner joue sur scène le drame du sens comme actualisation d’une virtualité sous-jacente. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| description |
In Dangerous Corner, one of J. B. Priestley’s “ time plays”, the playwright places an object, a musical cigarette box, at the centre of his experiment with time. The box is indeed the place where Priestley’s philosophy of time crystallizes out : as the plot unfolds and branches out from a whodunit into a metatheatre moment which deflates the whodunnit as pure fiction, the box is de-objectified, it becomes a fictitious thing, so that the spectator has to revise his judgement and consider it under a new angle. Thus, the box undergoes a process of becoming which makes it appear as anamorphic, moving in time rather than in space. As it is derealised and dematerialised, the box questions our assumptions about the capacity of theatrical representation to present reality on stage. Turned into a wavering signifier, the musical cigarette box leaves it open for the spectator to decide which is the real play, the whodunnit or the self- reflexive ending. Equally, the box makes it possible for us to experience two contradictory sequences of time simultaneously, and to enjoy the unique sensation of being immersed both in chronological objective time and in the intensive time of art. |
| author |
Fortin-Tournès, Anne-Laure |
| spellingShingle |
Fortin-Tournès, Anne-Laure At the crossroads between time and place: performing boxes in Priestley’s Dangerous Corner |
| author_facet |
Fortin-Tournès, Anne-Laure |
| author_sort |
Fortin-Tournès, Anne-Laure |
| title |
At the crossroads between time and place: performing boxes in Priestley’s Dangerous Corner |
| title_short |
At the crossroads between time and place: performing boxes in Priestley’s Dangerous Corner |
| title_full |
At the crossroads between time and place: performing boxes in Priestley’s Dangerous Corner |
| title_fullStr |
At the crossroads between time and place: performing boxes in Priestley’s Dangerous Corner |
| title_full_unstemmed |
At the crossroads between time and place: performing boxes in Priestley’s Dangerous Corner |
| title_sort |
at the crossroads between time and place: performing boxes in priestley’s dangerous corner |
| publisher |
Études britanniques contemporaines |
| publishDate |
2019 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/ebc.5973 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/ebc/5973 |
| _version_ |
1877241658736640001 |