Troubled Love between a Photojournalist and a War Correspondent
Published in the
Weekly Volcano, May 14, 2015
 |
| From left: Jenny Vaughn Hall as Sarah, Matt Shinkus as James, Steve Manning as Richard, and Helen Harvester as Mandy in Time Stands Still. Photo by Scot Whitney |
The
wartime love story Time Stands Still
by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies is now playing at
Harlequin Productions in Olympia. It is an intense and intimate portrait of a
pair of lovers — Sarah Goodwin (Jenny Vaughn Hall) and James Dodd (Matt
Shimkus) whose passionate devotion and equally passionate conflicts are
exacerbated by their friend Richard Ehrich (Steve Manning) and his girlfriend,
Mandy Bloom (Helen Harvester).
The
show takes place entirely within the Brooklyn apartment Sarah and James share.
Beautifully designed by Linda Whitney, the apartment appears to be a loft in
possibly a former industrial building with a giant arched window looking out
over the city. The dim city scene seen through the window is a video projection
by Marko Bujeaud. The furnishings appear typical for people who spend little
time at home.
Sarah
is a photojournalist home from Iraq where she was almost killed in a bomb
explosion after which she spent time in a coma. In the opening scene she hobbles
into the apartment on crutches wearing a large cast on one leg and with scars
on her face. She adamantly refuses help from James, who hovers protectively. In
successive scenes we see her with smaller and smaller casts and finally only a
knee brace as her leg injury slowly heals. The heavy scarring on her face never
heals.
Both
Sarah and James are living with post-traumatic stress. She does not want to
admit it. What she wants more than anything is to heal enough to go back to the
war where she feels her work gives her meaning. James, a war correspondent, was
so emotionally scarred by his tour of Iraq that he had to get out, only to go
back to help Sarah when she was wounded. Now he wants to marry Sarah, have
children, and work on safer writing assignments such as celebrity profiles. He
accuses Sarah of being addicted to the adrenalin rush of war.
Richard
is Sarah’s photo-editor. He wants them to collaborate on a photo-book about
their adventures in the war. Richard’s new girlfriend, Mandy, is 20 years his
junior and is seen at first by Sarah and James as empty headed arm candy, but
proves to be much deeper than they supposed.
The
conflicts between these four friends are monumental, intense, and in-your face.
Their arguments are emotional explosions analogous to what we can only imagine
they went through in Iraq. Thankfully there is also a lot of comic relief with
smart and witty dialogue and the love between the two couples is palpable.
All
four cast members are excellent. Hall plays Sarah with controlled intensity and
seems ready to explode throughout the play. Harvester transitions seamlessly
from playful and goofy to deep burning anger. Manning is solid and
down-to-earth, sometimes gruff but mostly walking on eggshells in the face of
the others’ explosiveness. Shimkus particularly impressed me with his
eye-rolling and smirking reactions to the other three. His performance is award
worthy.
I
liked the city scene out the window, but when the projected images change for
dramatic effect the changes are mostly ineffectual, with the exception of two
scenes of war when Sarah was describing a particularly horrible event.
The
final scene is something of an extended denouement that trickles to an expected
end. I wish the playwright had been able to find some more dramatic way to wrap
it up. Nevertheless, Time Stands Still is a powerful drama of
love and domestic strife on par with such classics as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf. I highly recommend it.
Time
Stands Still,
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:00 p.m. Sunday through May 30, State Theater, 202
E. 4th Ave. , Olympia, 360-786-0151;
http://www.harlequinproductions.org/
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