Joan Didion is not the most empathetic of writers. In her studies of the 1960s and 70s, Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album, she treats her counterculture subjects (hippies, Black Panthers, The Doors) with disdain and in her novel Play it as it Lays, she treats her fictitious characters with brimming contempt. Her words are often exact and exacting, completely rational.

The tagline for the Intiman Theater’s production of Didion’s own adaptation of her 2005 memoir The Year of Magical Thinking says “It’s okay to lose your mind; you’d be crazy not to”. Here is a memoir of remarkable honesty and empathy while she navigates her own emotions while her daughter is hospitalized with pneumonia and her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, died of cardiac arrest – both within a few days of each other. Didion’s daughter Quintana died shortly after she finished writing her memoir, so it is left out of the book, but is dealt with in the stage adaptation she wrote.

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The last time I was really, really starstruck was in late 2005. I went to the Seattle Public Library to see my favorite living American writer, Joan Didion, read from her new-at-the-time memoir The Year of Magical Thinking. I was so nervous to meet my literary heroine that I'm sure I was shaking throughout the time standing in line and when I finally got to the front to have my book signed, I'm sure I couldn't mutter "it's nice to meet you and I love your writing". I'm sure I got through half of that.

The memoir was the story of how her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, and daughter Quintana both died within a very short period of time. Shortly thereafter, Didion adapted her book into a one-woman play for the stage and when it premiered on Broadway a few years ago, Vanessa Redgrave played Didion.

The Intiman Theater began showing their production of The Year of Magical Thinking on August 21 and it will run through September 20. I'm planning on seeing it Wednesday night, so I'll try to come back with a review after. In the meantime, the play is directed by Sarna Lapine and features the actress Judith Roberts playing Didion.

For more information, including purchasing tickets, visit the Intiman's website.

If you're a Sanjaya freak (ironic or otherwise), the December 2 'Black Nativity' performances may be worth checking out just for the trash/trainwreck/superfan value.

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