A WELCOME home for injured photojournalist in a scene from “Time Stands Still” at The Public Theatre. From left are Evan Mueller, Janet Mitchko, Jessica DiGiovanni and David Newer.
“Time Stands Still” examines the relationship between Sarah (Janet Mitchko), a photographer injured in Iraq and her journalist boyfriend, James (Evan Mueller). She has returned to Brooklyn to heal, and we share the refocusing of their partnership during the time she recovers from her physical wounds and he, his emotional balance.
Most of us don’t know what it’s like to live in a war zone, but almost everyone has been laid low with an injury or illness that requires more time for reflection and dependence than our usual routines. Few of us are graceful within this constraint. Sarah is already a no-nonsense artist with a tight lens on life. She thrives on being independent; she knows the war is important news. So she struggles with receiving James’ help, with being back in the States, and especially with not working. And Sarah isn’t the only one healing; James has his own negative experiences with war.
Playwright Margulies puts a sharp focus on their relationship, highlighting the edges of their personal and artistic aspirations. Often they collide, bringing the audience into their fights and discoveries. Mitchko and Mueller create a couple in crisis and beyond. I wished their tensions had been less sighed and more evolving than explosive. Yet, I also sympathized with the demands of portraying multiple tensions, continually unfolding.
Their loft is brightened by the arrival of Sarah’s editor and longtime friend, Richard (David Newer), and his new girlfriend, Mandy (Jessica DiGiovanni). Richard glows around Mandy; Newer’s character masters both the sappiness of new love and the craft of business negotiation with friends within each scene.
Jessica DiGiovanni’s Mandy lights the stage with hope, in the middle of Sarah’s healing, in the middle of a war. Mandy is beguilingly refreshing, bringing balloons and honest laughter to balance the tension. “There’s nothing remotely cynical about her. She’s fun,” Richard says of her, and our opening night audience agreed.
Director Christopher Schario has blended the ensemble of these four actors. They speak to the many opinions of life and war, not just one. They speak for different ages and different points of view: mid-life cri- sis, examining one’s career choice, the decision to have children, and further.
The meaning of these challenges, even upon reflection, is ambiguous. And Margulies has been criticized for this ambiguity. Yet, life is like that. Margulies allows the tangles and outcomes to zigzag, to just be, and to become — like life.
Also, he has woven in the Iraq War and its horrors through the personal lives of these characters, reminding us of this reality beyond the stage and beyond our shores. The play, itself, is an important cultural documentation of war.
Ironically, Sarah explains her ability to shoot photos of the atrocities of war, “Time stops whenever I look through that little rectangle.” And perhaps we understand, and simultaneously are left wondering about her, and ourselves.
Finally, the costume design by Annette L. Bourque, set design by Judy Staicer, and lighting design by Bart Garvey deserve applause for capturing the personality of the characters and their moment in time. They fit so well; it would be easy to overlook the talents involved.
“Time Stands Still” will be performed March 22, 23 and 24. Show times are Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m., with an added matinee Saturday, March 23, at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for groups of 10 or more, and $5 for anyone 18 and younger . For tickets or more information, call 782-3200 or visit www.thepublictheatre.org.
“Time Stands Still” contains adult language.
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