Stunning reviews of a stunning performance! Catherine Downes and The
Year of Magical Thinking has received glowing appreciation from the
critics …
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| Catherine Downes in The Year of Magical Thinking. Photo by Stephen A'Court. |
Didion’s “writing is heartfelt, it is also incredibly
expressive and lyrical, a mark of the great writer that she is. However, as
good as this is, it still needs to be brought to life on the stage and this
where Susan Wilson’s production makes this into a superb piece of theatre.
The simple but effective set of Penny Angrick, Marcus
McShane’s subtle but very evocative lighting design and Gareth Hobbs haunting
music all add much to the quality of this production, but it is the stand-out
performance of Catherine Downes that transcends this production into something
special.
Solo performances often incorporate multiple
characters. Not so this play. Catherine Downes is nobody but Joan Didion
relating her year of magical thinking and how Downes does it is masterful.
From the moment she appears on stage with her opening
lines, reticent, holding back, but powerfully seductive, the audience is drawn
into her world where they stay for the duration of the production savouring
Downes’ exquisite performance.
There are moments of emotion, beautifully handled by
Downes, but for the most part this is a rational, sometimes even calculating,
way of dealing with loss which Downes portrays with such confidence and ease.
Consummate performer that she is, the strength, stamina and ability of someone
to perform what is essentially a 90 minute monologue is quite extraordinary.
A must-see production for not only the writing but for
Downes’ amazing performance.”
- Ewen Coleman, the Dominion Post
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| Catherine Downes in The Year of Magical Thinking. Photo by Stephen A'Court. |
“From the moment Downes appears, a spectre behind a
semi-transparent screen bathed in ethereal blue light, she is the character
left behind, the one still living. Downes’ face when she steps in front of the
screen is one of a woman struggling to hold something back and wanting to
release at the same time. “It will happen to you. That’s what I’m here to tell
you,” she says.
Written by American novelist and journalist Joan Didion
after her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, and her daughter, die within
two years of each other, the script is more fleet-footed, dynamic, and
revealing of her personality than the two books on which it is based. Self-pity
or sadness aren’t allowed to dominate one moment as she oscillates between
clinical details of death and memories that make up so much of life. Humour
also gets fair play. “It’s still early in Los Angeles. Is John even dead there
yet?”
Downes isn’t Didion, but she fully inhabits her memories
and all the ranges of emotions, so when she flashes back to a happy night in
Honolulu and says, “I had such a sense of well-being I did not want to go to
sleep,” it strikes a chord of joy as powerful as the knell of death.”
- Amanda Witherall, Capital Times
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“As the audience rises to applaud Catherine Downes' solo
effort, the wonder of it is she has made her 90 minute marathon seem
effortless: such is the centred fluency of her beautifully paced and modulated
performance, directed by Susan Wilson.
All is perfectly pitched for the intimacy of Circa Two. We
don't so much witness a performance as spend time with a very particular person
who has a profound experience to share.
It is 90 minutes very well spent.”
- John Smythe, Theatreview
The Year of Magical Thinking is on until 8 September. To book, call the Circa Box Office at 801-7992 or go online at www.circa.co.nz.
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