5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Fine Insightful Play, January 25, 2011
This review is from: Time Stands Still (Paperback)
I saw a performance of "Time Stands Still" on Broadway on Sunday, January 9, 2011. The printed script is very easy to read and follow. It was a thrilling play to see and is equally satisfying to read. The four actors in New York were James (Brian D'Arcy James), Sarah (Laura Linney), Richard (Eric Bogosian), and Mandy (Christina Ricci).
Sarah, a photographer who has been in many of the world crises and war zones, hobbles on crutches into her loft apartment in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn with Richard, her lover of eight years. They have just come from a long flight and are bushed. She was badly injured in a bomb blast and had a long recovery period in an American service hospital in Germany. Richard flew there when he first heard about the injury and stayed with her all during the convalescence. Their driver/translator/fixer, Tariq, had been killed in the same blast.
They have many issues between them. Richard who had been partnering with her in Iraq witnessed a horrible explosion, had a serious nervous breakdown, and had to return to the States leaving Sarah there with Tariq. He feels that she could have flown back with him during his crisis, and she feels as if he had abandoned her.
Shortly after they get in the apartment, Richard, the photo editor of her magazine and a former lover of Sarah's from decades before, comes in with his new young trophy girlfriend, Mandy, who seems to be somewhat dumb. It's Mandy, however, who brings out two important themes in the play. She says, quite vehemently that she can't understand how photographers can take pictures of people who are in pain or great stress. Why don't they put down their cameras and help. No, says Sarah, they can do much more good by providing the world with a photographic record of the suffering.
Later Mandy says why can't Sarah and James stop writing stories and taking pictures of the miserable things happening in the world, the downer stories and pictures. For her and millions of others they just want to live their own lives and don't need to see pictures of people "who go around hacking each other to death" These people, she says, "have always been killing each other," and there's nothing the ordinary person looking at a magazine can do anything about.
Later alone with Sarah, James says that Sarah fell in love with a man's "suffering, his victimhood, the romance of his wretched people...Oppression itself." James says she gets turned on by war, chaos, and drama. She "needs the buzz." At one point Sarah says, "I live off the suffering of strangers. I built a career on the sorrows of people I don't know and will never see again." You wonder if she really cares about people.
Author Donald Margulies has written a play that has real three-dimensional people facing authentic situations. His four characters are swiftly but fully drawn, and we know a great deal about them. His dialogue crackles, is sharp and brilliant. Not a word or gesture is wasted. In the theater or as a reader you are going to be propelled along by the narrative drive of this unique play full of all sorts of cross-currents and bristling with serious ideas.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Play, October 20, 2010
This review is from: Time Stands Still (Paperback)
I saw this play on Broadway a few weeks ago and it is simply brilliant. Although the descriptions of this play make it seem bland it is anything but. The dialogue is extremely intense and the back story is well explained. I would suggest seeing the play rather than reading it, simply because of the actors (especially Laura Linney) but the wrting really was what made this play great.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Gripping and Realistic Story, May 17, 2011
This review is from: Time Stands Still (Paperback)
Although I have not had the pleasure of seeing this play in performance, it comes alive even on the page, mostly thanks to dialogue that is not too overworked and verbose. The characters seem true to life, and the story itself is poignant and sad, but not so melodramatic as to read false. If you are looking for a good read, a good monologue, or a good play to produce, I would highly recommend it.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
