Matthew's Reviews > Time Stands Still

Having just read Disgraced, I'm seeing a lot of parallels in the two plays. Both deal with two couples in one of the couple's homes. Infidelity is an underlying trigger point in the conflict going on. Both deal with someone struggling with an element of post 9-11 world. In Disgraced it is with being a former muslim in America, in Time Stands Still it is with a role as a war correspondent.

This book's biggest strength is the dialogue. That first scene with James and Sarah interacting with Richard and Mandy was great to me. I felt like I could really get a taste for the characters there. The intellectual elitism, the awkwardness of meeting someone for the first time and in a strained settings.

I think the big piece that is holding me back (and seeing a few other reviewers comment on it as well) is Sarah's character. I get the general vibe of her, I read My War Gone By, I Miss it So in high school. However, I feel like in the second half, she doesn't quite resolve correctly for me. She returns from the prison photo shoot and seems to have this existential crisis about who she is and why she's doing it. And then it seems to just be dropped and she goes back to what she was doing. What was her reasoning? Is she just an andrenaline junkie? Does she feel like she's a difference maker? While normally I can look away from an element like this, here it feels really important to resolve as this is the fundamental question of the play. Mandy calls out war correspondence as just showing her stuff she can't do anything about. James thinks it's just a way to sate the rich liberals who want to feel bad for themselves. And Sarah... she doesn't seem to offer a convincing counter.

Oh well, the dialogue has me interested to read more of Donald Margulies work.