One woman faces the deaths of loved ones
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Susan Blommaert is Joan Didion in “The Year of Magical Thinking,” Didion’s autobiographical one-woman show. Hubert Schriebl |
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By JIM LOWE Staff Writer - Published: July 23, 2009
Death is a subject few wish to discuss, but as it is inevitable, it is universal. So points out writer Joan Didion in her autobiographical play about her coming to grips with not only the unexpected death of her husband but also her daughter within two years.
Susan Blommaert delivers a powerful performance as Didion in the Weston Playhouse production of "The Year of Magical Thinking," Didion's beautiful one-woman show, which opened last week at the intimate Weston Rod & Gun Club, as part of the theater's Other Stages program.
Didion, author of such novels as "Play It as It Lays," married author and screenwriter John Gregory Dunne in 1964, and the two collaborated on screenplays such as "The Panic in Needle Park" and "A Star Is Born." But the collaboration was far more personal than professional, as is made clear in this most affecting piece of literature. They shared virtually everything, including their adopted daughter, Quintana.
Soon after Quintana was married, she contracted pneumonia and went into septic shock and on life support. Following a visit to the hospital to see her, Dunne slumped over at dinner. He was dead. Didion's response, although she took care of "arrangements," was total disbelief. She couldn't bring herself to believe that what happened was irreversible.
This story — which will seem quite familiar to anyone who has lost someone close — chronicles her journey through these feeling, simultaneously revealing her family's story. It's fascinating, touching and even funny.
Directed by Malcolm Ewen, one of Weston's three producing directors, the Weston production is indeed powerful, but also warm and beautiful. Although Blommaert seemed a little abrupt in the beginning of Tuesday's performance, she was entirely convincing.
Blommaert not only felt like Didion, she brought the audience most successfully along her roller coaster journey of emotions. Throughout, it was nearly impossible not to empathize with Blommaert's Didion – perhaps providing catharsis for many.
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