When the mysterious Dr Gortler turns up at a moorland inn in Yorkshire, he inquires about a room for the night, and whether a married couple and a young man are expected. Answered in the negative, he goes away muttering about having got the wrong year, but later returns and is entirely unsurprised not only to find a room available but that the couple and young man are now ensconced at the inn. Soon the phrase "if I had my time over again" takes on new meaning as the characters discover that it is not too late to change their destinies.
Ever since Stephen Daldry rescued An Inspector Calls from flock wallpaper and creaky sets, regional reps have been attempting to turn JP Priestley's other time-obsessed dramas into contemporary plays, and have mostly come a cropper. Nottingham's artistic director, Giles Croft, doesn't even try: Priestley's minor 1937 play is presented as a period piece that makes the average Agatha Christie thriller seem daring and experimental.
Alas, for most of this dreary evening it simply feels as if the clock is ticking backwards and you have been trapped in a terrible time warp of strangulated vowels, soliloquised angst and quaint dialogue. Priestley's interest in time and theories of eternal reoccurance is better explored in Dangerous Corner and Time and the Conways. He is ill-served by a pedestrian production and a cast whose only options appear to be lethargy or hysteria. If I had my time over again, I would have gone to a different theatre entirely.
· Until May 12. Box office: 0115-941 9419.
