A photojournalist (Sarah Gaston) and a journalist (Seán Patrick Judge) who have worked together for several years covering the news — mostly in war zones — have returned home from their latest assignment. “She’s coming back from being nearly killed in a roadside bomb explosion that killed the person sitting next to her,” says Steve Garfinkel, who is directing by Pulitzer Prize­winning Time Stands Still by playwright Donald Margulies at Main Street Theater. Her companion, the reporter and writer, has had a breakdown of sorts overseas and had returned from Iraq before her. Now they have to sort out not only their ongoing relationship but the moral issues behind the work they are doing, Garfinkel says.

“Where are the moral boundaries between what’s right and wrong of photographing people as they’re digging their own dead children out of rubble?” One argument is that if they were not there to cover it, how would the world know? The other: Does it make any difference? There are four characters in the two-­act play — a photo editor and former mentor to the photographer (Jack Young) and his much younger girlfriend (Lisa Villegas) — but the main focus is on the female photographer as she decides whether to settle down and raise a family or return to the war theater, Garfinkel says.

Nominated for two Tony awards, the play clocks in at under two hours including intermission. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Through April 19. 2540 Times Boulevard. For information, call 713­-524-­6706 or visit ­ mainstreettheater.com. $20 to $36. ­

Sundays, 3 p.m.; Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Thursdays, 7:30 p.m. Starts: March 22. Continues through April 19, 2014

This article appears in Mar 27 – Apr 2, 2014.

Margaret Downing is the editor-in-chief who oversees the Houston Press newsroom and its online publication. She frequently writes on a wide range of subjects.