Isn’t death what we’re all afraid of? Not so much our own death (though that’s scary, too); far more devastating is if someone we love, someone we depend upon—our spouse, our children—goes before us. Being left alone with the emptiness, the beautiful memories which have now turned painful. It’s too much to imagine, so we block it out, pretend the possibility doesn’t even exist.

But, as writer Joan Didion was unfortunate enough to discover, these things do happen, and sometimes in devastatingly close proximity to one another. Within the span of just nine months, Didion lost her husband—John Donne, also a writer—and their daughter, Quintana.

In order to deal with such immense loss, Didion turned to writing. What resulted was The Year of Magical Thinking, a book equal parts heartbreaking, insightful, humorous and real.

Somewhere along the line, someone decided to turn Didion’s book into a one-woman play. And while very real, any fear of the book getting lost in translation from the page to the stage is quickly assuaged. The performance is the emotional rollercoaster that you’d expect, at all times captivating. Magical Thinking is one woman on stage, speaking for 97 minutes straight. Think you’ll get bored, maybe drift off? Think again.

As Didion, Fontaine Syer is pitch-perfect. She fully embodies Didion’s words, imbuing just the right emotion into the sentences and phrases, the mood and focus of which vary constantly. The sparse set, too, is just right: a floor-to-ceiling window, a comfy chair, a neutral-toned area rug, a bench with books and a photo album.

The night I attended, the audience in the small Emerson Studio Theatre sat entranced, rapt, almost wholly unmoving and nearly silent. One single cough, one candy being quietly unwrapped—that was all. Indeed, all eyes were on Syer, as they should have been, watching and listening reverently as she relayed—through beautiful, beautiful prose and observations—one woman’s path into the vortex of pain and—we expect, we hope—back out again. | Laura Hamlett

 

The Year of Magical Thinking plays through January 30. Curtain times are Tuesday at 7 p.m.; Wednesday – Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday evenings at 5 p.m.; selected Saturday nights at 9 p.m.; Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.; and Sunday evenings at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $36. To purchase, visit the Rep box office or online at www.repstl.org.