Character: Cheryl

Directed by: Emily Mann

Written by: Emily Mann

Produced by: Women's Project Theater

Cast Members: Timothy Near, John Spencer

Venue: American Place Theatre

Production Dates: February 10, 1981 - February 22, 1981

Genre: Drama

The play explores the way that Vietnam has affected three lives: a Marine veteran, his estranged wife, and his mistress. Seated at a table the three tell their various stories. The man confesses that he killed a Vietnamese family in cold blood and, carrying the seeds of violence with him, returned home to brutalize his pregnant wife. The wife, disillusioned and unhappy, wants to ignore the terrors that haunt her husband, believing that in time the awful memories will fade, while his mistress, an angry feminist, blames the man's destructiveness on the forces that conditioned him before he went to Vietnam.

In Mary’s words…

“Sometimes I feel the need to go back into Still Life,” McDonnell said, “because the confrontational aspect was so strong. It taught me the power of the theater – to confront a sea of faces and make decisions every moment, when you see resistance, whether to try to break through or move on. You got the sense of theater taking place in that moment.” [from “The Metabolism of Mary McDonnell” by Don Shewey – link]