Death becomes her

Vanessa Redgrave is standing in the damp chill of a New York City street smoking a cigarette.

Vanessa Redgrave is standing in the damp chill of a New York City street smoking a cigarette. It8217;s early January and she8217;s just given a talk, with writer Joan Didion, about The Year of Magical Thinking, the upcoming one-woman Broadway show that Didion adapted from her 2005 memoir of her husband8217;s death. Suddenly, the door of the building flies open and out bounds none other than Jane Fonda, Redgrave8217;s co-star from Julia, the 1977 film for which Redgrave won an Oscar. They hug, and then Redgrave spills some big news: 8220;I got married!8221; Fonda squeals, and the two clutch hands and beam like schoolgirls.

Redgrave hasn8217;t gone public about her marriage to her longtime companion, Franco Nero and seems to have forgotten a reporter is standing nearby. But it8217;s not surprising that matrimony is on her mind. Marriage is a powerful thread in The Year of Magical Thinking, Didion8217;s exploration of mourning and the near-madness it caused. She and writer John Gregory Dunne were married for 39 years when he slumped over dead just before dinner one night in their Manhattan apartment.

Didion8217;s book has sold 600,000 copies8212; more than any of her others8212;and the play is already sold out until June. For Didion, the death of her husband was so hard to grasp that she came to believe he wasn8217;t really gone that8217;s the 8220;magical thinking8221;.

In bringing her best-seller to the stage, Didion had to face another tragedy. Writing the book had helped her come to grips with her husband8217;s death, and writing the play became a way to deal with the loss of their daughter, Quintana, who died shortly after the book was finished. Her death 8220;is at the heart of the play8221;, says Didion. 8220;It was something I never entirely confronted before.8221; What gives the piece its special poignancy is Redgrave8217;s pitch-perfect performance. She modulates Joan beautifully8212; often she8217;s quite still, at other times, spirited8212;but she never overspends the big emotions.

Redgrave wears a wedding ring on stage and off it. It8217;s a gold band Nero gave her in a small ceremony for family and friends on the New Year8217;s Eve in England. The marriage, it turns out, isn8217;t official8212;8220;I think that8217;s a killer,8221; Redgrave says. 8220;But we8217;re married. It8217;s as simple as that.8221;

A month later, the actress celebrated her 70th birthday by beginning rehearsals for Magical Thinking. Hare calls the role 8220;acting Olympics8221;, the challenge of appearing at once in control and a little insane, not to mention being alone on stage for 100 minutes. She8217;s had two hip replacements.

For all the stages Redgrave has commanded in her long and brilliant career, this role is a kind of triumphal culmination. 8220;Everything I8217;ve undergone or been part of is here,8221; she says. 8220;It8217;s about survival. And that8217;s my birthday present, this play.8221; May she have many more8212;roles, as well as birthdays.

CATHLEEN MCGUIGAN