When I was choosing my plays for this year’s MTC subscription I was in two minds about whether to choose this one.
My hesitation was caused by stuff that was going on in my private life at the time, and I was worried that a play about a writer who lost her husband and her daughter in the space of a year might be too confronting for me to deal with.
However my admiration for Robyn Nevin won out and it was with some trepidation that I turned up at the Fairfax theatre for a preview of The year of magical thinking.
The play was written by Joan Didion and is based on her 2005 book of the same name. The book covers the year after her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, died – it was also the year that their daughter Quentana was seriously ill.
The play extends the book by six months or so and covers Quintana’s death as well.
Nevin turns in a wonderful performance in this one woman play. The set is simple – rows and rows of empty chairs. Scene changes are denoted by the lowering of the lights and/or Nevin removing/replacing her jacket.
Nevin got a much deserved standing ovation (and an earthquake!) at this preview performance.
