Review: TIME STANDS STILL at Teatro Dallas investigates the trauma experienced by War Photojournalists
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Time Stands Still
Written by Donald Margulies
Directed by Mac Welch
Produced by Teatro Dallas
Audience Rating: PG - mild language, subject matter
Run Time: 2 hours including one 15 minute intermission.
Accessible Seating: Available
Hearing Devices: Not Available
Sensory Friendly Performance: Not Available
Production Sound Level: Comfortable Volume
Noises or Visuals to Prepare For: Nothing of Note
Reviewed by Jenny Wood
Donald Margulies’ Time Stands Still is described as “a dark comedy from Pulitzer-Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies [which] explores the lives of an American photojournalist and her journalist partner as they grapple with their recent experiences overseas covering wars in which their involvement is ambiguous.”
Teatro Dallas’ Artistic Director, and Director of this production, Mac Welch indicates in his Director’s Note that this production was selected for this season because the story “speaks to the experience of wanting to be involved but now knowing how...the experience of war being felt by people who weren’t born and raised in places that were active war zones, people that had never seen war firsthand.”
In the early moments, as photojournalist Sarah, Gisela Guajardo, effectively evokes a quiet flatness recognizable to those in the know as variation of shellshock. Not depression, but exasperation tempered by exhaustion.
Her partner of many years, James, is played bigger and bolder by Caleb Mosley - Mosley is unafraid to emphasize James’ controlling and often childish affect, transferring his own guilt and insecurity onto Sarah’s recovery while refusing to address his own issues and attacking those making their best efforts to help her move forward.
The ensuing volatility plays out over a simple one room set, elegantly designed and dressed by Rune Bunn, and a subtle city soundscape by Elena Martin.
It’s not until Richard (Taylor Harris) appears that we learn the circumstances that led to this point. As Sarah’s long-time photo editor and friend he carries a sense of duty to restore her to her “rightful” path despite James’ desire to keep her stagnant in the moments before their roads diverged.
Breana Deanda provides a bright Greek chorus as Mandy, asking the dark questions with an enduring flourish: Why are you showing me this sadness? Why didn’t you help? And finally… What are we supposed to do with this information?
Digest it, I suppose. Empathize? Or, as with Sarah and James, gaze into the murky ambiguities until we are forced to either dive in or walk away.
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