Oct 26, 2012 3 min read

Among the scattering of adjectives that I keep using to describe “Time Stands Still” at Little Lake Theatre, one floats to the forefront: unusual. Why, I wasn’t completely aware at first. Donald Margulies has written a relatable, emotion-stirring love story about two people who have reached a crossroads in their relationship, and it’s probably this angle that hooked, excited or simply moved director Sunny Disney Fitchett, known for her attraction to plays that explore complicated feelings between women and men. Is that so different? But here, the woman makes her living as a photojournalist who travels the world from one dangerous assignment to another; the man is a war correspondent who wants to cut himself off from the horrors he witnessed abroad and settle down to a quieter life in Brooklyn; and “Time Stands Still” begins with the woman, Sarah Goodwin, returning home after being severely injured in Iraq. Bring them all together and you come back to the description I can’t shake: unusual. It is, however, the love story component that will appeal the most to audiences at Little Lake, despite – or maybe because of – the effort Margulies put into developing a complex, adult union rather than a sentimentalized, star-crossed romance that has no connection whatsoever to life the way we know it. Fitchett, who previously guided Margulies’ “Dinner With Friends” and “Brooklyn Boy,” has done well in casting Mary Liz Meyer as Sarah and Mark Cox as James Dodds, Sarah’s partner of eight years. Having directed both performers in comedies and dramas, she’s familiar with their considerable gifts and sees to it that they do more throughout the play’s two hours than gain advantage from natural actor-to-actor chemistry and make a convincing pair for the circumstances. In Sarah and James, we watch a believable couple bound together by a long personal history and what that entails, from genuine devotion to conflict that arises from well-meant gestures and carelessly worded statements. Just as believable are the changes their relationship goes through after psychological wounds are opened and a secret that Sarah had kept from James is revealed. It’s a testament to the beautiful performances given by Meyer and Cox, acting at the top of their game, that “Time Stands Still” remains a compelling piece even with an awfully slow start and a frustrating lull in the second act. Helpful then, when the play stalls, is the comic relief provided by Margulies’ other couple, a photo editor played by Art DeConciliis and his girlfriend of the moment, a free spirit who, as acted charmingly by Laura Barletta, tries to comfort the injured Sarah by telling her, “I’ve been praying for you … which is weird, ’cause it’s not like I believe in God or anything.” But with the “embryonic” Mandy not being as vapid as she initially seems, her relationship with DeConciliis’ smitten but condescending Richard will have to overcome a few hurdles, too. Margulies looks at both relationships with unusual frankness, and it was with some courage that Fitchett brought “Time Stands Still” to Little Lake and tucked it into a season of genial comedies.