Monday 7 April 2008

The Year of Magical Thinking


Mk and I saw The Year of Magical Thinking this evening. Robyn Nevin is directed in this one woman piece directed by Cate Blanchett. This neatly reverses the roles as it was Nevin who directed Blanchett in Hedda Gabler in a production that went to New York.

The play, by Joan Didion, relates Didion's response to the deaths in short succession of her husband and daughter. Although a play ostensibly about death it seemed to me more a reflection on life's relationships and communication.

It's a dense play, just the one woman on stage and speaking uninterrupted for ninety minutes.

This is not the type of play I would usually enjoy. I did have concentration problems at first but the writing is superb and so is Nevin. The longer the play continued the more involved and drawn to it I became. I found a lot to relate to from my father's death following a short illness five years ago and also from my mother's recent hospitalisation.

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