num_pages: 104
description: Johnson Over Jordan, which was something new for Priestley, followed close upon the heels of the very different play, When We Are Married, and it had its fair share of problems after being first presented at the New Theatre on 22nd February 1939. After only a few weeks it was clear that it could not continue: audiences were thin, and it ws losing money hand over fist. Priestley ended its run, hired the smaller Saville Theatre, and persuaded Basil Dean to take only half a royalty. Ralph Richardson agreed to continue on no salary for a few weeks, and after some adjustments, the play was relaunched with seats at reduced prices.To expllain the background...Since their earliest collaboration in the theatre, JBP frequently talked of doing a play especially for his friend Ralph Richardson, and Basil Dean recalled: "One day Priestley handed me the script of Johnson Over Jordan, a modern morality play in which the outstanding events of a man's life flit through the middle years of temptation, thence to unsullied youth --a life history in reverse as it were. I realised that it would afford rare opportunities not only for the display of Ralph's gifts but also give me a chance to resume my experiments in new production methods." Judith Cook wrote: "For Johnson Over Jordan Priestley drew on all his theatrical expertise, his thoughts on time, his reading of Jung, Dunne and Ouspensky and his desire to experiment with what are now known as multimedia theatrical forms, but which were new to theatre in the late 1930s. Most of the play's critcis described it as 'expressionist', an adjective that Priestley considered totally inaccurate.Happily, the play has survived, and the introduction to the most recent publicaqtion of the play described the story thus: Robert Johnson (he was played by Richardson) lived the most ordinary of lives, until he died. Suddenly he is catapulted into the strangeness of his afterlife and begins a frightening, lurid and emotional journey. Past memories, secret desires and present regrets and longings mingle with the real, surreal and sublime.
language: English
title: Johnson over Jordan
titlecomplete: Johnson over Jordan (Oberon Modern Plays)
genres: Plays
ratings_count: 25
publisher: Oberon Books