The reaction to horrific events such as the 9/11/01 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center is bound to change as time and distance expands ones perspective and blurs focus. The immediacy of such plays as “The Guys” ; and “The Mercy Seat”, written and performed soon after the attack, were spontaneous expressions of shock and grief over its victims. It is inevitable that, two years later, a production such as “Portraits” expands this myopia to a larger view addressing the survivors’ response. Indeed, Jonathan Bell extends the boundary of his concern all the way to upstate New York

As indicated in his Author’s Notes, this production, which consists of a series of monologues by fictionalized people speaking of how their lives were affected, was initially conceived as a memorial to that tragic day. Just as grief is personal and will vary among people, the response of an audience to this play and the people in it will be just as individual.

What is not variable is the superb performances of each cast member. Each vignette is written with such sincerity and truth it is hard to remember that these are not real people called up to testify. Author Bell has a propensity for strong, descriptive adjectives with which he almost prefaces each “ portrait”..

Andrew Knapp’s Dali-esque set of abstract picture frames of varying size, suspended in space and swathed in Joshua Pearl’s somber, ominous music summons up the almost surrealistic tenor of emotions evoked by the memory of 9/11.

Cristopher Coucill, as Andrew, the artist/narrator, is in awe of the power and replication of the horror of mass murder in Picasso’s famous anti-war painting, “Guernica”, and longs to do the same for the destruction of the Towers he witnessed “in his backyard”. Instead of one canvas he decides to paint portraits of individual survivors, “people on the outside perimeter” all experiencing “isolation, fear, unity” and that is Bell’s device to tell their stories, some more leisurely than others but each with an inevitable, poignant tug at the heart..

The first is of Betty (Darrie Lawrence), a middle aged woman 200 miles outside of New York in Oneida who is alone at hoe when the news struck. “Fear and isolation” are Bell’s chosen adjectives for her as she needs to talk to someone about what is happening but everyone in her life is busy elsewhere. This urge to connect drives her to make a blind call to NYC where she gets reaches a Park Avenue woman who responds in common need but hangs up abruptly to try to locate a relative at the Trade Center. The woman later calls her back in surprising confluence with the moment.

The next, characterized by Bell’s adjectives “frenzy and focus” is initially more obscure. We meet Daniel (Victor Slezak), a Waspy blue blood successful Wall Street executive formerly married to an Irish woman whose rambunctious family includes policemen and firefighters, in a hotel room swigging whisky and railing against the Bible. He had chosen to spend the night before with a casual ling term mistress while his wife was away. Hearing the news she called his cell phone out of concern and he, unaware, blithely told her he was in his office at the Trade Center.

“How strong is your faith?” precedes the segment about a third generation American Muslim young mother in Washington, D.C., convincingly played by Anjali Bhimani, whose adjectives might be “fear and revenge” ; as she worries about attacks on her 2 young boys for their obvious heritage while vehemently stressing her “personal jihad is to live in this country I love and not run away”.

There is a dual portrait of an angry young mother (Dana Reeve) who cannot forgive her husband for losing his own life guiding others to safety and a widow (Roberta Maxwell) whose son she saved.

Perhaps the most vividly realistic is Matte Osian as John, a male nurse emergency rescue worker en route from Boston to visit his cousin, a New York firefighter. He notes that traffic on I95 was stopped but, when he flashed his credentials, he was given a pass straight through to the site to find his cousin. ”Awe and horror” are his adjectives as he is immediately absorbed into a rescue team comprised of medical people from all over the world who were visiting New York and volunteered. “They needed to help” and he notes “there was not one cross word in 24 hours’. “ Dedication and cooperation” were his other adjectives as people offered him their homes to come to shower and rest among other kindnesses. He utters the evening’s sentiments “hatred and devastation, love and hope” .

The artist wraps up the evening reflecting that the sound of the wind howling across the site is made of not only the souls of the victims but the struggles of the survivors.

It is apparent that Mr. Bell did not at first envision this as a commercial vehicle but more as a personal observation and therein lays both its weaknesses and its strength. Its ability to reach you will depend on your willingness to embrace it and the cast’s extraordinary performances certainly make it touching.