The Time Stands Still synopsis is complicated – in a personal way – but obvious – in an emotional sense. With a talented cast of Laura Linney, Brian D’Arcy James, Alicia Silverstone and Eric Bogosian, Donald Margulies’ Time Stands Still is a heart-wrenching play about the lives of two couples coping with changes in life and war aftermath.

One couple, Sarah (Laura Linney) and James (Brian D’Arcy James), share a passion for documenting Middle-Eastern wars through the lens of a camera and a pen on paper. They have just returned to their New York apartment from Iraq, where Sarah was severely injured by a roadside bomb. Having been together for eight years, the couple is forced to adjust to a conventional lifestyle and to each other during this tough time.

Richard (Eric Bogosian) is a close mutual friend and photo editor of their magazine who is realizing he’s at his mid-point in life. He has found Mandy (Alicia Silverstone), his much younger and highly emotional pregnant girlfriend, to be just what he needs. Mandy and Sarah’s views collide throughout the play, stirring up arguments over self-defining issues such as Sarah’s work and what she stands for. Mandy doesn’t understand how Sarah can watch the struggles of war from behind a camera instead of helping whoever she can in the setting before her, while Sarah profusely defends her lifelong passion for photography and the realities of war.

The play flashes forward to both couples now married. Sarah and James aren’t finding marriage to be easy, as secrets between each other become revealed through flashbacks and their own realizations.

This incredibly intelligent and well-directed play captures emotions that strike home. It touches upon the power of finding one’s self in a time of hardship and insecurity. Each character draws you in with their unique lives and relationships with one another. Make sure to buy Time Stands Still tickets soon so you can experience this magnificent show for yourself!