{"id":2955,"date":"2012-09-11T21:25:42","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T21:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=2955"},"modified":"2012-09-11T21:25:42","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T21:25:42","slug":"time-stands-still","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/time-stands-still\/","title":{"rendered":"TIME STANDS STILL"},"content":{"rendered":"

TheatreWorks presents\u2026..<\/strong><\/p>\n

TIME STANDS STILL<\/strong><\/p>\n

By<\/p>\n

Donald Margulies<\/p>\n

Directed by Leslie Martinson<\/p>\n

Starring Rebecca Dines, Mark Anderson Phillips, Rolf Saxon & Sarah Moser<\/p>\n

\n

Your only obligation in any lifetime<\/p>\n

Is to be true to yourself. Richard Bach<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a play about finding out who you really are.\u00a0 \u201cOne of our greatest contemporary dramatists, Donald Margulies is a photojournalist of our lives, gifted with an extraordinary lens,\u201d says TheatreWorks Artistic Director Robert Kelly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In Time Stands Still<\/strong>, Margulies examines the conflict we all face in sorting out what we need to be as human beings and what we are actually doing with our lives.\u00a0 Although the plot weaves many themes together, that of career, marriage, human need, and our obligation to ourselves and to society, the real story is the juxtaposition of the relationships of the two couples we see on stage.\u00a0 The play \u201cis very much about the choices and compromises we all make —in love, in work, and particular to this play, in war,\u201d says Margulies.\u00a0 \u201cEthical struggles touch on all aspects of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rebecca Dines is Sarah, a photojournalist severely injured while recording the terror and slaughter in Iraq.\u00a0 We meet her when her lover Jamie (Mark Anderson Phillips) is bringing her home, her leg and arm broken and her body a mass of abrasions.\u00a0 Jamie went to a hospital in Germany to be with her as she fought for her life. \u201cI had my fifteen minutes (to become famous) \u00a0and I spent it unconscious,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As she contemplates her career and her need to return to it, she says, \u201cI live off the suffering of strangers.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jamie counters with, \u201cYou help them in ways you can\u2019t see,\u201d but the truth is that Sarah gets far more out being in the midst of combat than a good picture.\u00a0 She is addicted to the danger and feeds off the violence she captures on film. \u2018The women and men who put themselves in unimaginable situations to capture images and stories\u2026aren\u2019t simply doing it for the public good,\u201d says Margulies.\u00a0 \u201cTheir courage is immense, to be sure, but there is an unmistakable kind of thirst for it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jamie is a journalist who uses words to record the horrors that Sarah photographs and he has had enough.\u00a0 \u201cWe don\u2019t have to do this,\u201d he says to Sarah.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t want to watch children die.\u00a0 I want to watch them live.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The other couple, Richard (Rolf Saxon) and Mandy (Sarah Moser) is in direct contrast to the tormented, battle scarred main characters.\u00a0 Richard was once Sarah\u2019s lover and employer. He is a newsmagazine photo editor and is instrumental in creating a book of Sarah\u2019s photographs and Jamie\u2019s writing.\u00a0 He is wildly in love with Mandy now, an idealistic, sweet and unbelievably na\u00efve girl thrust into the company of three hard core liberal realists. Richard excuses her:\u00a0 \u201cShe\u2019s young,\u201d he says but Sarah delivers the final put down\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s young and there\u2019s embryonic.\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mandy has brought Sarah balloons to cheer her up and she says, \u201cBalloons have an amazing way of making you feel better.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Although Sarah and Jamie obviously dismiss her as inconsequential, Sarah Moser has given Mandy an exquisite persona the audience cannot help but love.\u00a0 She is obviously sincere and there is a great deal of wisdom in her innocence.\u00a0 She tells Sarah, \u201cI\u2019m an event planner,\u201d and Sarah counters with, \u201cI\u2019m in events, too.\u00a0 War.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But Mandy refuses to be diminished and she will not allow Sarah to believe her relationship with an older man is nothing but fluff and sex.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cPeople think I am Richard\u2019s mid-life crisis,\u201d she tells Sarah.\u00a0 \u201cBut it is not that at all.\u00a0 Whatever it was that brought us together was what brought us together.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As the action develops, we see that Richard and Mandy have built a solid foundation for their relationship.\u00a0 It is a fulfilling one for them both without a hint of the sugar-daddy\/bimbo infatuation Jamie and Sarah assume created it. \u00a0\u00a0All the actors in this production are superb, but I have to say that Moser and Saxon mesmerized me with the veracity of their portrayals.\u00a0 They brought their characters to compassionate life without a hint of sentimentality.\u00a0 When Mandy hears that Sarah has photographed a dying child, she is horrified that the older woman did nothing to help or save that child.\u00a0 She cannot believe the cynicism she feels in the room and she says, \u201cThere is so much beauty in the world.\u00a0 I wish you\u2019d let yourself feel the joy.\u00a0 Otherwise what\u2019s the point?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It might sound trite and it might be a one dimensional sentiment said by anyone else, but Moser transforms her lines into exquisite observations on what we can make of our destiny if we really want to see its potential instead of its loss.\u00a0 When the two get married and have a baby, Mandy decides to stay home to rear it.\u00a0 \u201cYou make me feel like less of a woman because I want to stay home with my baby,\u201d she tells Sarah and Sarah understands, but she knows that isn\u2019t the life she would choose.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is when Jamie sees how happy Richard is that he realizes that he and Sarah can have something more\u2026the happiness, the positive future, the security\u2026if they will but give it a chance.\u00a0 He tells Sarah: \u201cWhen a couple has been together as long as we have and has seen what we\u2019ve seen and done what we\u2019ve done, it\u2019s time to call it what it is\u2026a marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And Sarah agrees\u2026in principle\u2026but she doesn\u2019t take into consideration her own drive to do the thing she loves and her thirst for the action that feeds her. She justifies the value of her work to herself and to Mark. \u00a0\u00a0\u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for people like me, the ones with the cameras, who would know?\u00a0 Who would care?\u201c she says and he realizes then that the relationship isn\u2019t going to work for him.\u00a0 \u201cYou need drama more than you need me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Until the final scene, the plot held together beautifully for me.\u00a0 Leslie Martinson is a superb director and the movement of the characters, the use of silence, the juxtaposition of innocence and cynicism is masterful.\u00a0 Erik Flatmo\u2019s scenic designs are right on the mark, accenting the action and never detracting from the action on stage.\u00a0 Both Dines and Phillips occasionally had trouble convincing me that they were the real thing and often their chemistry on stage disturbed rather than enhanced the action. There was falseness to their intensity that did not ring true.\u00a0 \u00a0It was Saxon and Moser who charmed me throughout.\u00a0 That said, the entire production is a must see on every level.\u00a0 The script is truly wonderful and TheatreWorks has given us a theatrical masterpiece, beautifully presented. As an ensemble production, it excels.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Time Stands Still <\/strong>continues through Sept. 16. at the \u00a0Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. Tickets \u00a0$23-$73.<\/p>\n

More information: (650) 463-1960, www.theatreworks.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TheatreWorks presents\u2026.. TIME STANDS STILL By Donald Margulies Directed by Leslie Martinson Starring Rebecca Dines, Mark Anderson Phillips, Rolf Saxon & Sarah Moser Your only obligation in any lifetime Is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[837],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-joe-cillo"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"