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TIME STANDS STILL Send This Review to a Friend
Donald Margulies’s new play “Time Stands Still” is packed with issues that are explored in depth through his characters and their relationships, not via polemics, and the author demonstrates that humor can be vital ingredient in delineating serious content. The physical and psychological wounds war can have on those who photograph and report from the battleground, the ethics of photo journalists taking pictures of tragedy rather than joining in rescue efforts, conflicting needs of marital partners, career versus domesticity, commercial pressures that dictate what goes into a magazine, the frustration of not being able to do anything about the horrors that go on in the world—these are some of the problems dealt with in the course of the idea-rich play.
Under Daniel Sullivan’s astute direction that allows the play to build gradually, this production by the Manhattan Theatre Club, by special arrangement with Nell Nugent and Wendy Federman, is highlighted by some top drawer acting by a four-member ensemble. Foremost is Laura Linney as Sarah Goodwin, a news photographer who has been severely injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq. We meet her when she just arrives home. Her arm is in a sling, her leg is in a brace, her face and body has been scarred. It becomes clear that Sarah is a prickly character anyhow, but the wounds that have taken her out of commission—she almost died—have left her angry, tense and resentful. Determined to recover as rapidly as possible and get back to work, she bristles when her long-time companion James Dodd, a journalist played acutely by Brian D’Arcy James, tries to assist her.
Sarah is filled with disdain when she and James are visited by their long-time friend and magazine editor, Richard Ehrlich, who brings along his girlfriend Mandy, a woman young enough to be his daughter. Sarah instantly resents his choice and Mandy’s youth and considers her a lightweight. But Richard, played superbly by Eric Bogosian, is happy at the joy Mandy brings to him. She is going to have his baby, another irritant to Sarah, who prefers her independence to the idea of motherhood. But as delightfully played by Alicia Silverstone, Mandy demonstrates that she is a likable, feeling person who is open to learning and thoroughly devoted to Richard. The playwright extracts humor from the contrast between Mandy and Sarah, who delivers acerbic, mocking and bitchy remarks.
Linney gives one of the season’s finest performances as she delineates the various aspects of Sarah’s character. There is a scene in which James has asked that she marry him after all this time living together, and as she sits on the bed mulling his proposal, her face changes expressions to reveal various emotions she is feeling without the need for dialogue. Linney can be effective thinking and listening as well as with words. Her characterization of Sarah becomes fascinatingly complex.
D’Arcy James is special in his role too. Dodd is filled resentment, partly about something he has learned concerning Sarah’s tour in Iraq, but also because an article of his has ot yet been published by Richard. He also resents Sarah’s ridiculing him for wanting to write about horror movies, a favorite subject. His big dramatic moment comes after they are married, when he lashes out at Sarah for wanting to get back into the action on which she thrives instead of wanting children and a home life, and he is thoroughly convincing as he vents his bottled up feelings.
With such good acting by the four-member cast, the play, while perhaps crowded with too many issues, is riveting. One watches these performances intensely—they command it. There are no simple resolutions and Margulies doesn’t try to pretend that there are. He dishes his drama straight, zeroing in on his characters to show their strengths and weaknesses, and the performances more than do justice to the play. The result is a mature work well worth experiencing, especially with regard to the acting. At the Samuel J. Friedman theatre, 261 West 47th Street, $57-$97. Phone: 22-239-6200.
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