‘Time Stands Still’ was written by Donald Margulies, the Pulitzer Prize winner and directed by Daniel J. Sullivan, the Tony Award winner. This outstanding play, premiered in Los Angeles in 2009, was also nominated for 2 Tony Awards. In the beginning of 2011, this production was closed.
There are two main characters in this four-character play: James Dodd, a reporter, and his girlfriend Sarah, a photojournalist (Isherwood, 2010). When performed in 2010 on Broadway, ‘Time Stands Still’ starred Brian d’Arcy James (initially this play starred David Harbour) as James Todd and Laura Linney as Sarah. Laura Linney was later nominated for the Tony Award for the Best Performance by a Leading Actress.
Both Sarah and James have been working in Iraq and reporting on the war. Sarah is in love with taking pictures of the war scenes, and being in the epicenter of the chaos, her car was hit by a bomb and she was severely wounded. Tariq, her guide and interpreter, was killed.
After the accident, Sarah was recuperating in a hospital in Germany from the injuries she suffered in Iraq. In the beginning of the play, James brings Sarah home, to their loft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. James is focused on the process of Sarah’s recovery from bumps and bruises. James himself was in Iraq, but returned back home because of a breakdown just before Sarah’s accident.
Sarah and James spend time in their Brooklyn loft when they are visited by Richard Ehrlich, Sarah’s former flame and a good friend of the couple. He arrives to their place with his young girlfriend Mandy, who presents two silver balloons to Sarah. Mandy assures Sarah that she was praying for Sarah’s quick recuperation, but Sarah’s reaction was rather cool.
Mandy leaves the room and goes to the bathroom. When she leaves, James and Sarah tell that Mandy is adorable, but their tone of voice makes this statement rather doubtful. Eric Bogosian (as Richard) starts exculpating Mandy’s gaffes in a comic manner with excellent facial expressions.
Then Richard tells Sarah and James that relationship is not all about having a young girlfriend, and Sarah adds that Mandy is not just young, she is more of an embryo.
Basically, this play is about interaction and communication between the main characters. Margulies shows that most conflicts come from the childhood of people (Sarah tells that her parents were quarrelling all the time and this is the reason she became a war photojournalist). Also, this play is focused on the choices people make. While James is tired of being a war reporter, this is a part of Sarah’s life and she will never feel comfortable living in New York. Sarah wants to move forward while James is planning his calm future in New York with Sarah.
Another key part of the play is the role that journalists play in covering conflicts. Sarah feels guilt that she kept taking pictures and did not help when her help was needed. She faces a great inner conflict: did she have to put camera down and help or keep doing her job and show her pictures to the world.
Also, Margulies showed a conflict that couples face in their everyday life. He compares the relationship of Sarah and James to the companionship of Mandy and Richard and shows that even loving relationships can be uneasy.
This powerful drama showed how different people can be, and illustrated the conflicts and pain that are an integral part of any relationship. Margulies created a play about wars and conflicts in the world and in our everyday reality.
References
Isherwood, C. (2010, January 28). What’s Really Fair in Love and War? - “Time Stands Still" The New York Times. Retrieved November 17, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/theater/reviews/29time.html?pagewanted=all
