The Elusiveness of Time

As their summer season winds down, Shakespeare & Company has offered theater buffs one more opportunity to see what happens when a brilliant script, a passionately insightful director and a cast of four beautifully matched actors converge on the same stage. “Time Stands Still” by Donald Margulies will run through Oct. 13 in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre on Shakespeare & Company’s Lenox, Mass., campus.  

To miss this last installment of a season that Artistic Director Allyn Burrows has dubbed “The Strings of the Heart” would be to pass up the chance to spend two hours sharing a story that both strikes deep, personal resonance and, at the same time, is ultimately liberating.

Margulies’ script is about making choices … then living with the consequences.  It is about being true to who we are, once we have discovered who the person in the mirror really is. Director Nicole Ricciardi has, by her own admission, infused the production with her own experiences and perspectives, and the result is deeply rewarding.

We meet Sarah Goodman (Tamara Hickey) on her return to her Brooklyn apartment, escorted by her partner James Dodd (David Joseph). She is struggling to recuperate from a horrific war injury received while covering the conflict as a photo journalist. He is a journalist who, while covering the same conflict, had suffered a breakdown, left Sarah behind while he attempted to recover and now gingerly, delicately, tries to create an environment where she can heal.

Their mutual friend, photo editor Richard Ehrlich (Mark Zeisler), arrives to welcome Sarah home, his new girlfriend, Mandy Bloom (Caroline Calkins) in tow.  

That’s where the story begins. Two hours on, each of the four has undergone the “sea change” identified by Shakespeare that leaves them confronting who they are, what course they have chosen and their individual commitment to fully live out those commitments.

Each cast member has so completely become their characters that offering brief individual accolades would border on being condescending. They are so intensely, unrelentingly blended into the story that, like fine architecture, the dramatic structure is unswervingly strong. They listen, they speak, they roar, they joke, they exhibit real pain and, at the end, stand for who they are, and are content … and the audience leaps to its feet in confirmation.

There is humor, to be sure. There is almost silly comedy, but not so silly that the characters do not maintain an honesty and believability that makes the entire production worthy of the standing ovation it receives.

Autumn is here, and when “Time Stands Still” closes, Shakespeare & Company shifts into its “off-season” series of readings, its Fall Festival of Shakespeare and a February Valentine Surprise. The 2020 season will begin in May. To borrow a line from the chorus in T.S. Eliot’s, “Murder in the Cathedral,” “We wait, we wait.  The time is short, but the waiting is long.”

“Time Stands Still” runs until Oct. 13 with Friday, Saturday and Sunday performances at Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, Mass. Tickets can be obtained on line at www.shakespeare.org or by calling the box office at 413-637-3353.