An innovative and immersive production that will have audiences on the edge of their seats, Donald Margulies’ critically-acclaimed, Tony Award nominated play, Time Stands Still will be presented at Sydney’s TAP Gallery for a limited season from 3 November 2017.
Time Stands Still is set in the Brooklyn home of Sarah, a photojournalist, and her war-correspondent boyfriend, James. Together they have shared a passion for reporting on the world’s war zones and have led an adrenaline-fueled life telling stories from the razor’s edge between life and death.
Sarah has been forced to return home injured and disfigured from an IED explosion she was caught in while covering the war in Iraq. James also returned from the same war months earlier after the stress and horrors finally become too much for him. Both are forced to carry their scars into the loft they share making a damaged and often awkward attempt to regain the domestic normalcy that is so strikingly alien to the world they knew in Iraq.
When thrown together with an old friend and his much younger girlfriend, Sarah and James’ attempts at a conventional life become even more fractured and strained, powerfully depicting how much is required to keep a ‘normal’ life alive.
Time Stands Still poses questions of love, duty, pain, honesty, questions of family versus career and the cost of creating war coverage for mass consumption – can a human being live with the knowledge that perhaps they should have intervened rather than passively capturing a violent moment through a lens? And once the veil of war has been pulled back can a person ever truly return to the life they once led, or will they forever be drawn to the destruction and devastation of conflict?
Under the directorial eye of Claudia Barrie, Time Stands Still explores these questions while fully immersing the audience in the play’s world. “With the limited performance venues available to artists right now we need to think outside the square,” says Barrie. “The audience get a huge buzz being so close to the actors and become completely entwined in their journey.”
The new Artists’ Space at the re-formed TAP Gallery will be transformed by the show’s design team into a New York City loft where the audience will find themselves seated within James and Sarah’s home rather than outside the fourth wall of conventional theatre.
Time Stands Still is a dangerous, confronting, honest, funny, at times uncomfortable and thought provoking play – when the desire to move forward clashes with the instinct to stay comfortably – or even painfully – in place, to stand still.
“Insightful writing, the work is smart, stylish, timely and layered with an intriguing seriousness that inspires discussion after the curtain comes down—a rarity these days.” – Associated Press.
Director: Claudia Barry Featuring: Laura Djanegara, Matt Minto, Terry Serio, Emily J Stewart Set Design: Isabel Hudson Costume Design: Emily Brayshaw Sound Design: Amy Freeman Producer: Emily J Stewart
Time Stands Still
The TAP Gallery, 259 Riley Street, Surry Hills
Season: 3 – 25 November 2017 (previews: 1 & 3 November)
Bookings: www.trybooking.com
For more information, visit: www.eclipseproductions.com.au for details.