THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING

Vanessa Redgrave's throaty contralto and famous hint of a quaver beautifully serve this brief dramatization of Joan Didion's memoir about the year following her husband's sudden death. Redgrave starred in the stage version, and her intimacy with the material highlights the eloquence of Didion's writing and the agony of the emotions portrayed. Didion was in her 70s when she wrote the book; Redgrave is in her mid-80s. Yet the perceptible age of Redgrave's voice enhances the play's themes of the fragility of life and the tenaciousness of hope--even if hope is just a form of magical thinking that enables you to move forward. Redgrave intermingles silences with gentle crooning, a steely rasp with breathy bewilderment, delivering a memorable paean to shock and survival. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2021]