Better Theatre

Although I was feeling rather tired, went to The Year of Magical Thinking at the National. Again there were crowds outside at what now seems to be called National Square, and some quite good kids doing a breakdancing demonstration to loud music, which was fun to watch. The performance was a monologue by Vanessa Redgrave, from Joan Didion's book about the deaths of both her husband and her daughter. The review in Time Out was not that good, but I found it fascinating,despite the rather gloomy subject. Good acting really does help.

My first husband once took Vanessa Redgrave to some garden party in Oxford in the sixties, and he told me she was very shy, though already quite famous.

After the play I thought that it is funny that even we oldies can be ageist, I remember thinking that it was so clever of her to remember all those lines at an age when some of us are forgetting which day of the week it is.