Theater: Time Stands Still
Playwright Donald Margulies’ ­latest play is “compelling, if at times elusive,” said Charles McNulty in the Los Angeles Times.
Theater
Time Stands Still
Geffen Playhouse
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Los Angeles
(310) 208-5454
***
Playwright Donald Margulies’ latest play is “compelling, if at times elusive,” said Charles McNulty in the Los Angeles Times. What’s compelling is the relationship at its center, between a war photographer injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq and her reporter boyfriend, who feels guilty for not having been at her side. Sarah’s brush with death has convinced James that a “normal” life, away from the world’s trouble spots, is the proper course. Sarah, meanwhile, is hiding an affair with her Iraqi translator, who was killed in the incident. She’s clearly nursing some pretty serious psychological wounds, but “it isn’t always clear where Margulies is dramatically heading.” As a result the play waffles, sometimes confusingly, between a relationship drama and a more complex morality play.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The play’s themes may be wide-ranging, but a quartet of actors lends Daniel Sullivan’s production an “essential unity,” said Bob Verini in Variety. Anna Gunn and David Harbour “fully embody Sarah and James’ history and conflicts.” They particularly shine during moments of awkward “physical proximity” or when their dialogue overlaps quite realistically. Robin Thomas, as the couple’s old friend and editor, Richard, is wonderful. Alicia Silverstone, who plays his much younger girlfriend, Mandy, recognizes that her seemingly ditsy character exists to introduce several of the play’s larger questions, such as “How can one take photos of bleeding kids instead of intervening?” Despite this play’s flaws, the two hours really do “fly by as if time has stood still.”
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'Voters know Biden and Trump all too well'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Is the Gaza war tearing US university campuses apart?
Today's Big Question Protests at Columbia University, other institutions, pit free speech against student safety
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
DOJ settles with Nassar victims for $138M
Speed Read The settlement includes 139 sexual abuse victims of the former USA Gymnastics doctor
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published