Stage adaptation of 'The Year of Magical Thinking' to star Vanessa Redgrave

It was revealed in an article in the New York Times that Vanessa Redgrave is to star in the stage adaptation of Joan Didion's autobiographical book, The Year of Magical Thinking, which will open at the Booth Theatre on the 29 Mar 2007

Joan Didion's autobiographical book, 'The Year of Magical Thinking', gives an account of the fear, despair and exasperation of bereavement, that followed the sudden death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne, after a heart attack at the dinner table.

Joan Didion had been married to John Gregory Dunne for 39 years, during which they had been thriving literary partners, writing screenplays together, often adaptations of each other's novels.

At the time of his death, their daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne Michael, was lying unconscious in the hospital after a bout of the flu turned into pneumonia and then septic shock, which lead to her death in Aug 2005, aged 39.

The show will be directed by British playwrite David Hare and produced by Scott Rudin.

According to the article there was never much discussion about casting. Scott Rudin said, "Vanessa Redgrave was the only person we ever talked about. There was no one else ever discussed."

The article explains that Mrs Redgrave was not choosen for any physical similarity between herself and Joan Didion, of which apart from being of similar age, they are few, but because it is hoped that she will be able to convincingly deliver the lines. David Hare said of Venessa Redgraves casting "She is the most emotionally expressive actor about a certain kind of extreme feeling."

Vanessa Redgrave, after expressing her reticence in talking about the play, said in the report, "If you care very much about what somebody has written and it's a life, it lives, it's not like you talk about it like it's a book."

Joan Didion is still working on the script which is expected to be finished in the summer.

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Vanessa Redgrave