This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 11, 2011 - Actor Fontaine Syer wants to be clear: It's all right, even ideal, to laugh out loud during her performance of "The Year of Magical Thinking," a story about the death of a dear spouse. Despite its tragic storyline, "Magical Thinking" strives to pull both laughter and tears from its audiences.
The one-woman play, drawn from the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir of the same name by Joan Didion, chronicles the year following the loss of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. The narrative begins on a December 2003 evening, when, after the couple returns home from visiting their comatose daughter in the hospital, Dunne suffers a fatal heart attack while sitting in his favorite chair.
Following Syer's 2010 performances in Indianapolis, the Jan. 12-30 St. Louis Repertory Theatre run marks the second time she has taken the stage as Didion.
This will hardly be Syer's first experiences with St. Louis audiences. Back in 1975, she co-founded the local Theatre Project Company, which lasted for 15 years. During that time, Syer also taught at Washington University and the University of Missouri St. Louis.
In a telephone interview, Syer, who now teaches at Indiana University, spoke with the Beacon about the production and the emotions it evokes.
What did you think about the script when you first read it?
Syer: The themes are incredibly important because, one way or the other, we're all going to have death be a major part of our lives. I think in the culture we live in, somehow we have the idea we're going to live forever -- and we're not; people we love are going to die. It's just as much a part of life as birth. The play requires the audience think about these things at least for the time they're sitting and watching the play. You hope they're still thinking about it later on.
Do you have personal experience that makes this play resonate for you?
Syer: For better or worse, I've gotten to an age where I've been through enough "life" to make a lot of this play very resonant. I suspect anyone this age has similar experiences. Most of us have lost someone very close to us, most of us have been through some very serious experience with illness, and we learn that life can make us either laugh or cry -- or both at the same time.
Could you talk about the tone of the play and describe how the audience responds to its lighter moments?
Syer: Joan Didion explores this situation with a fair amount of humor as well as with the anguish you anticipate. As soon as possible, you have to make audience know it's OK to laugh. I learned in Indiana that the people in audience who've gone through losing someone close to them are quicker to laugh than those in the audience who have not. It's always the people who say, "My sister died two years ago, very abruptly, and I was happy to be able to laugh about death tonight."
Can you give us an example of the humor?
Syer: She talks about the ambulance rolling up to ER after her husband collapses, and she spots this guy in a business suit. He turns to the ambulance driver and asks, "Is this the wife?" Then he looks at Joan Didion and says, "I'm your social worker." She says, "There's something to remember: if they give you a social worker, you're in trouble."
