Time Stands Still, at Keizer Homegrown

Keizer Homegrown Theatre’s production of Time Stands Still, by Donald Margulies, is an intense interrogation of responsibility in the face of atrocity. Taylor Pawley directs a strong performance that does exactly what theatre should do: ask moral questions in a public setting.

The play, written in 2010, follows in the tradition of Iraq War plays of the early 2000s. The plot follows a civilian war photographer (Sarah) physically and emotionally scarred by an IED, attempting to put her life back together state side. Like Margulies’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Dinner with Friends, he tells the story through two adult couples who come together and break apart, in part due to Sarah’s experiences. The dialogue is snappy and naturalistic. The play could easily translate to film, except for some key moments of explosive intensity that work better on the stage.  

I have seen all four cast members in other performances, but none quite so strong as they are here. Paul Malone’s James, Sarah’s boyfriend, is sympathetic, caring, and conflicted, forced to choose between doing something for the world and his own mental survival. Michael Swanson is the best I have seen him as Sarah’s friend, Richard, caught in an ethical trap between friendship and professional duties. Hannah Patterson I remember most as the wide-eyed girl from Pentacle’s Trip to Bountiful. Here, she is a Millennial unjustly picked on by her more mature friends for her lack of life experience. But really, she is a stand-in for the audience, the regular person who cannot really do anything about the horrible things she hears about on the news. The star of the show is clearly Christa Karschnia’s Sarah, far more at home in this dramatic role than in comic parts I have seen previously. She carries the burden of the camera, of the witness. Her anger and bitterness strive visibly against hope and optimism, but not only because of her injuries.

The story starts slowly, as a bit of a mystery, put the major conflict picks up shortly. The second act is intense, emotional, and powerful. In addition to adult language, the play contains graphic descriptions of war time violence; there is probably nothing you have not heard on the nightly news, but be warned.

This play asks deep questions: What is the responsibility of journalism in the face of atrocity? Is it better to document or to act? Is it better to know or not to know, and what good does knowing do on the other side of the world? What does it mean to look from a place of privilege on those who suffer, only to walk away from them? But like all American plays, the politics are explored through the domestic lens of family and relationships.

This is a fine piece. As a follow up to Doubt, Keizer is clearly in the mood to ask the tough questions and explore them with gutsy performances. I can’t wait for The Guys. Time Stands Still only runs through March 12, so see it soon.