The Year of Magical Thinking: A Review

“This happened on Dec. 30, 2003”, Joan Didion reports at the beginning of The Year of Magical Thinking.

“That may seem a while ago but it won’t when it happens to you,” she goes on.

And it will happen to you.”

On that day, Didion’s husband and collaborator, writer John Gregory Dunne, collapsed and instantly died as they sat down to dinner in their New York apartment.

Didion’s book about this event and its aftermath received wide praise for its unsentimental examination of bereavement’s irrevocable shock.

It won the National Book Award in 2005.

Just before its publication, Didion’s and Dunne’s only daughter, Quintana, also died after a lengthy, mysterious illness.

These two tragedies frame the play Joan Didion then created from her book.

Northern Stage has come up with an excellent production that showcases Didion’s surgical powers of observation under extreme stress.

Catherine Doherty’s firm but unobtrusive direction, some ethereal incidental music from NH singer Kathy Lowe, and Ken Goldstein’s isolating, destabilized set design are all just right.

Mostly, though, The Year of Magical Thinking belongs to veteran actress Alma Cuervo.

She gives a courageous and often riveting performance in the play’s single role.

Cuervo’s character is wounded beyond healing yet still capable of precise clinical description of her condition.

She sustains this evening-long monologue with controlled passion, mordant humor - and sheer skill.

Didion’s play is about actions and decisions, not feelings, but the details of Cuervo’s performance describe what Didion leaves out.

The way she uses her hands and feet, her struggle to remain detached enough to continue speaking, the tears that stand in her eyes but do not fall, show us a woman determined to resist the temporary insanity brought on by grief.

For her, self-pity is a trap into which one must not fall.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about The Year of Magical Thinking is that it’s not quite complete.

Cuervo’s still a little uncertain about transitions here and there, and she mixes up a name or two in Didion’s lengthy text.

But these are minor glitches, and they won’t last.

This is a performance that should be seen by anyone who’s interested in how great acting works, the kind that holds an audience rapt for an hour and a half and leaves it sitting stunned.

The Year of Magical Thinking will run at Northern Stage through February 15th.

It may sound like a downer, but it plays like an affirmation.

For NHPR news, I’m Kevin Gardner.