“War and tragedy are a backdrop to this play about relationships which asks how we decide how much we can sacrifice for the ones that we love,” said Director Connie Canaday Howard, the artistic director of the Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, which is presenting “Time Stands Still.” “The play is about how much we can compromise for the people we love before we lose who we are.”
“Time Stands Still,” written by Donald Margulies, will be presented by the Buffalo Theatre Ensemble at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and at 3 p.m. Sundays from Feb. 1-March 4 in the Playhouse Theatre of the McAninch Arts Center at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn.
“Time Stands Still” looks at the lives of a couple who are journalists and who make a living out of documenting the horrors of war. The play centers on Sarah, a photo journalist, who has returned from covering the Iraq war after being injured by a roadside bomb.
As she is recovering in the Brooklyn, New York, apartment that she shares with her foreign correspondent boyfriend, James, they receive a visit from their photo editor friend, Richard, and his young, new girlfriend, Mandy. The ensuing discussion forces Sarah and James to re-examine their relationship, and address the ethics of journalism in a world torn by conflict and suffering.
“I live off the suffering of strangers,” Sarah says in the play. Is she “a ghoul with a camera,” or is she a witness to things that happen in the world that might pass unnoticed without her?
“The play looks at the conflict in journalism to record the truth as opposed to what effort should be spent to intercede and help,” Canaday Howard said. “Today we have such heightened discussion and dialog about international or domestic issues, individual rights or misrepresentation of facts. This play speaks to all of this.”
And although time may stand still when a photograph is taken, Canaday Howard believes the play’s title is really saying the opposite.
“The title is a metaphor for everyone in the show and others,” she said. “When you stand still, and you have passion, you increase your focus. The characters in the play are finding a way to move forward rather than stand still.”
Canaday Howard thinks the play, written by Margulies in 2009, may offer a more optimistic view in 2018.
“Today society is feeling fragmented,” she said. “A lot of us are feeling that there is anger and hurt and negative feelings. In this piece, the characters are really fighting for each other. The play shows people helping one another rather than tearing each other down.”
Randall G. Mielke is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
‘Time Stands Still’
When: Feb. 1-March 4
Where: McAninch Arts Center at College of DuPage, 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn
Tickets: $20-$37
Information: 630-942-4000; www.atthemac.org
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