Year of Magical Thinking - an honest portrait of a unique mind

Whenever tragedy suddenly hits anyone - especially multiple tragedies - the first thing you wonder is "how will they ever get through it?" Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, impeccably performed for Theatre Kingston by Artistic Director Kim Renders, gives us one very famous, admittedly privileged, and talented woman's response to just such a situation. Not only did writer Didion's longtime life and creative partner suddenly die - but it was at a time when their only child was in a coma, with more health challenges ahead.

Far from being a formulatic, chest-thumping grief purge, the detailed script of The Year of Magical Thinking is a compellingly honest look into the very articulate, not always logical or admirable, but utterly authentic coping strategies that Didion employed to cope with her famous husband's death and her daughter's repeated hospitalizations. It was Magical Thinking - something she wasn't terribly proud of, but which sustained her, all the same. And which she shares with us.

What Didion selects to tell us about the night her husband died - and the hope-fraught time thereafter- is probably closer to an actual survivor's experience than anything you'll ever see on television -or that most people will share with you. Grief, like God, is in the details. Wanting to keep the shoes in the closet. The tone of someone's voice. The way you avoid anything that will send you deeper - until you're ready.

This show, and Render's performance are both unique and thought-provoking. While hearing Didion tell how she "did it" - you're also amazed at how Renders does it - all 90 minutes,without ever dipping into cliche or melodrama. They are telling us a story. A story about the mind. A story about life.

It is also useful information. Don't employ magical thinking to convince yourself that it isn't. As Didion says "when it happens to you - and it will" - it will be good to know that the things you think, and the things you feel do not have to be Hallmark card/grief therapy platitudes. Your own interior resources can actually get you through.

Sit, and listen. It's important information.

Lin Bennett

Gordon Lightfoot in concert- pass my cane!

Carefree Highway, one of the first songs in Gordon Lightfoot’s Kingston K-Rock Centre concert this weekend, talked about picking up pieces of a dream and wondering about how the old folks are. He certainly didn’t have to look too far, if he really wanted to know. The sea of white hairs and shining bald pates (including those of his band) was looking complacent, bored, and maybe quietly hoping for a brief reconnection with their pasts – a past where people called them “beautiful” and said they would “never stray” and the future was still ahead. The cold spotlight of a Sunday night in Kingston was telling everyone something else, however.

Now, Mr. Lightfoot indeed looked pretty good for 72 – somewhere between lanky and frail - carrying his long gray hair well and striding out in cowboy boots with heels (not orthotic runners)! But his raspy voice had definitely seen the “better days” of his Carefree Highway years –and the passion was only there in the lyrics, certainly not resurrected on stage. He didn’t even seem to try.

Okay, maybe he was protecting his voice. Maybe all his health issues over the years meant this was as good as we could expect… and, for someone who had been pronounced dead by gossip earlier in the year, he was certainly damned healthy. Still, “not dead yet” is just not a good enough reason for a concert.

“See him while he’s alive”…might imply a tribute, of sorts, and I wholeheartedly believe it’s important a figure such as Gordon Lightfoot experiences our respect now (rather than watching us from a cloud after he’s gone). Nonetheless, I couldn’t help compare the concert to the one given by Leonard Cohen, who was just a tad older when he played here at K-Rock Centre last year. Even at 3 times the ticket price, that was five times the show.

We all have icons whom we’ll forgive for almost anything. I know there are a lot of others who felt exactly the opposite about the concert: that hearing the lyrics from Lightfoot himself was enough, more than enough, to send them into raptures. That was exactly the same way I felt about the Bob Dylan concert that was publicly reviled by so many a few years ago. And yes, I teared up for Early Morning Rain. And smiled at Rainy Day People. And nodded along with Sundown. And was glad that the K-Rock sound was actually so good this time we could (mostly) understand him quite well.

But mostly, it just made me sad. I’d rather have seen him on TV.

Crispy, Well Cooked, and Very, Very Addictive

Just a week ago tonight I was in Vancouver, slogging through the Downtown Eastside core in the rain carrying a self-erasing placard behind aboriginally-inspired community dancers, Morris Men and fake cows in a parade called The Procession of Performing Circles that's part of six weeks of Public Art in the Downtown Eastside (www.bright-light.ca) And I came back sulking, since "everything neat happens everywhere else."

Wash my mouth out! As I finally got un-lagged, I was immediately immersed in my art-filled new world of the Art Rental Gallery and Shop at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre (www.aeac.ca) and I got a reminder about the Apple Crisp 2010 Music Festival. Gadzooks! We just made it to a free - FREE - concert from the great Gertrudes at Chalmers Church, and was admonished that whatever we did, we had to stay for The Happiness Project with Toronto's Charles Spearin and his group. Extraordinary. In short, the music came about after Spearin interviewed his neighbours for their stories, prompting them to discuss things that made them happy and he and the group captured the cadences in their voices and built music around the words and tonal patterns. As he said. "they start singing their own thesis" --the experience was more than infectious, it was utterly transformative. Gorgeous. Laugh making. Happy happy happy and unique. Not since I first heard Laurie Andersen live have I had such a buzz. Get the music at http://www.myspace.com/charlesspearin

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE- At 108 Charles Street, 4-7 p.m. until March 20, you can wander through a lovely little house for The Happiness Project Art Exhibit, and see rooms done by artists to suit each of the pieces. Ceramicist Marney McDiarmid and fabric artist Annie Clifford set a table for lovers and friends ...Josh Lyon has three videos to go with the piece about the joy of challenged children... and the uber-cool artist Don Maynard does an amazing bathroom piece (including a painted tub, babies, and bubbles) to go with the story/song of the Trinidadian neighbour. Seriously, nothing in the world should keep you from this. I first decided the high was second only to hearing Leonard Cohen here --but after seeing the art show (and buying the CD) it's now actually pulling out ahead of Leonard. Yes, it is -since it's a feast for literally all the senses (free cookies, too ). And while you're still zinging from the inspiration, go two blocks away to see the newest Swamp Ward Window installation at 448 Bagot Street. As good as it gets, this stuff.

More Apple Crisp stuff every night this week...including False Face at the Mansion, then especially the Friday Night Flux with the Cedar Tavern Singers, co-presented this Friday March 19 at the Baby Grand Theatre (www.modernfuel.org) (www.kingstongrand.ca) Limited seating there - I'd buy early. But, there's something about small city life. When something good hits -- you're right in the middle of it, it's almost like a command performance. Congrats, Apple Crisp people. You keep it up, and we just might stay!

A Quick Rant

It's early in the morning to rant (but I've been up awhile) - still, I swear there's an Emperor's New Clothes thing going on in the design world, and I'd like to put a stop to it. Now, I actually studied this just a few years ago, so it isn't the rant of an elderly woman (or just my age speaking) "Reverse" type, I.E. white on coloured background is overused, incorrectly used, and is driving me utterly mad.

I swear it's another way for people to disrespect words (we've all given up a bit on grammar). More than 3 lines of type done in white (or worse, colour on colour) make the reader just haze over - or really strain. Can we afford to alienate people, or be so inconsiderate? Huge amounts of money are spent by not-for-profit groups to make flyers and brochures and ads they think (or their designers think) are really cool, but they might as well be written in gobbledygook.

If the words are so unimportant to read ----don't bother printing them. And stand up to your designers, people. Start noticing now much you read after the first line or two, when it's written in white (and 10 pt. type.) Gotta go to work now.

ArtsTarting Rules! ( Sometimes you just need a laugh!)

Sometimes when you have a job (or two) that's all about supporting culture and artists you just have to go out, have a laugh, and assume everyone can take care of themselves for awhile (yes, just like parenting). Had a great couple of evenings this week, one hanging out with the ArtsTarts ( a little group of folks who promote the arts in our fair area) and the other at Women Fully Clothed. The ArtsTarts all talked our faces off but wore our earplugs and cones of silence and can't be quoted about anything. The good thing about drinking in a situation like that is that you won't remember much of what you - or anyone -said the next day. The bad thing is...someone might not have had as much to drink. Ah well, once in a blue moon, it's o.k.

Two nights later I went to Women Fully Clothed at the Grand, and I swear every woman in town over 50 (perhaps minus those who work at the university) was there. It was my first time seeing the comedy sketch troupe of brazen broads that includes Kathryn Greenwood from Whose Line Is It Anyway, the audacious Robin Duke from Saturday Night Live and SCTV, Jayne Eastwood from everything and Teresa Pavlinek from The Jane Show.

A couple of sketches really captured the essence of female conversation (do they go everywhere with microrecorders?) including a skit about the gang having what they think is a real conversation, but is mainly soundbites of media catch words that no-one ever gets time to really flesh out fully but psychically understand anyway! Best song of the night "Some People are Better Than You" - which was a Sesame Street style "feel better" song that explained how some people are just born superior, and they can't help it (so stop trying to catch up)! My favourite line of the evening went along with it: "you know those perfect women ...they're not out there with you...they're home having sex with their husbands!" Also LOVED a quintuple-take shudder/hex from Robin Duke about her (ex) husband and his predilection for Viagra! The troupe probably could have taken ten minutes from act two and had only one act full of great material, but well, you know women and bathrooms.

Grand evenings

I still remember the first time I visited the Grand Theatre, just before we moved here 10 years ago. The show (Guys and Dolls, from the Playhouse) was great - but I immediately asked "Why in the world does a nice city like this have a high school auditorium for its major theatre?" Thank goodness, that's changed, and I'm now a big fan. Okay, there are physical things to be worked out, but the programming is certainly not among them.

Last night I saw Angele Dubeau and her group of "femme string players" La Pieta there. First impression was "they're all so young!" And most of them were. Not so much the audience, however... (which is too bad, in a university town). The programme was about myth and legend and really featured a wide range of style, from Haendel and Bartok to Philip Glass, an old Russian film theme that had touches of giggles and ragtime, and a newer piece called Gypsy Heart. They even finished off with the wisdom of "giving them something to go out humming" ( Offenbach's "Can Can" from Orphee aux Enfers.)

In general, I started out a little nervous, because the group was fairly sedate and not much to watch (the configuation on stage was not conducive to watching anyone but Ms. Dubeau and the cellist) - but the aural effect was extraordinarily smooth and full. Other pieces became livelier and you genuninely felt Dubeau's Romanian training in "giving a voice and body" to the instrument. At times the "voices" of the instruments were challenging, at others almost hysterical and Dubeau's own solid connection with the instrument even made it a very physical experience.

Although it might be nice to have some sort of more interesting backdrop for smaller groups such as these --to offset the large stage and sedate first impression -- the choice was a solid one. Now if only the 30 "coughers" in the crowd had unwrapped their losenges early... I have a feeling that Saturday's Coleman Lemieux dance troupe will be more my "usual style" - and also might just dive in for much-needed comedy next Friday night with some very funny "broads in Women Fully Clothed." Good seats left for both. www.kingstongrand.ca

King's Conscience Redux

The long awaited Theatre Kingston/Salon Theatre King's Conscience (the "hip hop Hamlet) really turns the Baby Grand space into THE room to be in for Kingston. I'd love them to keep it that way and keep doing cabaret style theatre there. Maybe the bar could help subsidize the costs people keep complaining about. Rockne Corrigan is the coolest young modern Hamlet, and probably taking a teen to this is the best thing folks could do.

Anna Sudac is also fairly delicious as a smart guitar playing Molly/Ophelia, but I preferred to focus on the raps and the story between them, which was a mite hard to follow (it veers off from Hamlet fairly significantly but when it stays with the old Bard's words and messes with them, that was my favourite part) That being said, particularly in the first part, Charlotte Corbeil Coleman (a big young force to watch for, and director Layne's daughter) and Rockne wrote some pretty funny stuff. Really. They should have quotes from it all over the place.

So....before the end of the month, go for the "total experience" at the Baby Grand and treat yourself to a drink and smart young folks mixed with a classic in the neatest space in town. It might just be my Alternative Valentine pick... (since the major Valentine pick for me is Coleman Lemieux dance in the big theatre next door.) You could be really groovy and do both on the 13th.... since there's a late-night show.