In less than two years, writer Joan Didion dealt with the deaths of both her husband and her daughter. One of the greatest living American writers, Didion translated her tragedies into The Year of Magical Thinking, a book and subsequent play that muses on the way we deal with grief and mourning. Her words will come to the Bas Bleu Theatre Company stage in Fort Collins tonight as part of a collaboration between New York director Oz Scott and Bas Bleu artistic director Wendy Ishii, who plays Didion in the one-woman show.
"I remember as a kid, that was the worst thought I could ever have — what would happen if my mother died," says Scott, a college friend of Ishii's who has staged Broadway performances and directed such TV shows as The Cosby Show and L.A. Law. "It was fascinating when my mother died that I didn't fall apart, that there was this strength that came from somewhere."
"What I like about this play is that she shows this strength that comes where you least expect it to come from, which is within you," Scott adds.
The Year of Magical Thinking opens tonight at the Bas Bleu Theatre, 401 Pine Street in Fort Collins, and runs through August 4. For tickets, $12 to $24, and showtimes, visit basbleu.org or call 970-498-8949.
Fridays-Sundays; Thu., Aug. 1. Starts: July 26. Continues through Aug. 4, 2013
