Fri 11/5-Sat 12/11
Essayist and novelist Joan Didion lost her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, is 2003, after nearly 40 years of marriage. The following year she began writing about her response to his death in her book The Year of Magical Thinking, a year that also included caring for her daughter during a near-death experience; her daughter died shortly before the book’s 2005 publication. In the book, Didion analyzes grief through the lens of her own changing responses to her loss.
The book was turned into a one-character play, which debuted in 2007 starring Vanessa Redgrave; it incorporated her daughter’s death.
Clearly, this isn’t a light evening of theater, but it’s a moving and thought-provoking one. And Cleveland small theater ensemble Cesear’s Forum is taking it on, starring veteran local actress Julia Kolibab in the demanding role of the grieving woman. Greg Cesear staged the play with set by Michael Larochelle, lighting by Andrew Kaletta and costumes by Inda BlatchGeib.
They’ll be performing it at Kennedy’s Down Under at Playhouse Square on Fridays and Saturdays, November 5-December 11, with Sunday matinees November 14 and 21st. Tickets are $18. Go here to buy them.
One Response to “Cesear’s Forum Stages One-Woman Play About Loss and Grief”
Roger L Parsons
Saw this last night. It is a masterwork of writing and performance. Just one more showing – tonight. If you possibly can, do not miss it.