potent fuel as well.

Sarah's relationship with longtime boyfriend James, a reporter who had a meltdown in Iraq, involves its own shifting demarcation lines, sudden flare-ups, tentative truces.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning Margulies develops this material in ways that can keep an audience feeling just as insecure as an army detail patrolling on a dark night in a neighborhood known to harbor enemy sympathizers. Throughout, the playwright demonstrates his considerable gift for creating flesh-and-blood characters who speak a language that rings true, a language often spiced with a sharp-edged humor.

Director Jason Loewith has Everyman's cohesive cast moving through the work -- and the loft apartment conjured up in spot-on fashion by scenic designer Daniel Ettinger -- with remarkable naturalness and nuance.

Sarah is not an entirely likable character. She compartmentalizes emotions and responsibilities, and she tries hard to keep people at a distance -- not just the strangers she photographs in the horrifying wake of a terror attack; but those who know her best, who love her most.

Beth Hylton deftly captures Sarah's cynical surface, but also the power of her faith in what she is doing, and the vulnerable, tender place deep inside.

The actress is vibrantly partnered by Eric M. Messner as James, a journalist who once matched Sarah for courage, but finally broke from the strain of covering such a brutal, dehumanizing war.

Having left Sarah behind in Iraq, James experiences intense guilt over what then happened to her. Other feelings get in the way, though, after he discovers more about the time she spent there without him, and the anxiety triggered by this gives the character extra resonance.

Messner offers an insightful, richly layered performance that becomes especially affecting in last scene of the first act, when James surprises Sarah with talk of marriage, the step they never thought they needed.

The play involves one other couple. Richard, a photo editor, is a sturdy friend to both James and Sarah; his girlfriend, Mandy, is an event planner half Richard's age and, it seems at first, half his IQ. With these characters, Margulies revels in opportunities for a good deal of humor that, even when it resembles sitcom fare, comes as a welcome relief and release.

But there is much substance to both of these figures, too, a depth that comes through to telling effect in this staging thanks to two vibrant portrayals.

James Whalen taps into Richard's mix of level-headed, naive and compassionate features. Mandy Nicole Moore does a terrific job as Mandy from the moment she bubbles in with tacky balloons ("I didn't know which one to get, Welcome Back or Get Well Soon, so I got both"), to the scene when she suddenly asserts her own views and challenges Sarah's cold convictions.

All four characters develop persuasively. Some of us may question the paths they choose, the battles they fight, the barriers they erect or assault. But the way they reach their decisions makes for involving theater.

The evocative set (I especially liked the placement of a poster for the 1952 Marilyn Monroe movie "Don't Bother to Knock" just outside the front door) is subtly lit by Jay Herzog. LeVonne Lindsay's costumes neatly define the characters at the start of the first act -- shades of khaki and olive drab for Sarah and James, as if they both still have one foot back in the war; splashes of vibrant contemporary color from Mandy and Richard.

Some of the sonic-visual effects employed along the way come off as heavy-handed, especially the first volley, but that's a minor point. This is, typical of Everyman, a thoughtful and solidly integrated production of a play that has much to say.

"Time Stands Still" runs through Oct. 7.

PHOTOS BY STAN BAROUH