ON STAGE

What: The Year of Magical Thinking

Where: Belfry Theatre

When: Opens tonight, continues through Dec. 13

Tickets: $23 to $38 (tel. 250-385-6815)

Plays about death and grieving can be tough box-office sells.

But Seana McKenna, starring in the one-woman play, The Year of Magical Thinking, is quick to point out this 2007 drama is uplifting and life-affirming, as well.

"It's about love that existed in a family, and that's celebratory," she said. "It also talks about joy and safety and well-being."

The Year of Magical Thinking, opening tonight at the Belfry Theatre, is an adaptation of the best-selling book by renowned American writer Joan Didion. The stage version was also penned by Didion, with advice from playwright David Hare. It chronicles the year following the death of John Gregory Dunne, her husband of 39 years. In 2003, Dunne, a noted novelist and screenwriter, died of a heart attack. Not long after, their daughter Quintana also passed away following several illnesses.

Seventy-four-year-old Didion, who writes both fiction and non-fiction, is especially admired for her journalistic essays. In particular, she's known for the cool, razor-sharp precision of her writing, found in such collections as The White Album (1979) and Slouching Toward Bethlehem (1968).

Her distinctive style, not without humour, continues in The Year of Magical Thinking. Didion writes of enduring the deaths of her loved ones with great detail: the harsh brightness of hospital lights; brushing her ill daughter's damp and matted hair; the EKG electrodes and syringes left on her living room floor by paramedics who tried to revive her husband.

Belfry artistic director Michael Shamata said it is Didion's thoughtfully observed, personalized style that makes the play widely accessible. "The specificity of it makes it universal," he said.

He first saw The Year of Magical Thinking two years ago on Broadway, an inaugural production with Vanessa Redgrave. He was keen to bring it to the Belfry Theatre, believing the confines of the small theatre would provide an appropriate intimacy. And he immediately knew that he wanted McKenna -- an award-winning actress with whom he has worked before -- for the production.

McKenna notes that one-person plays are always challenging (her first one-woman show was at the Belfry in 1993: The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe). However, the Didion play -- with its contemporary viewpoint and conversational tone -- is almost a walk in the park after recently starring in such daunting historical plays as Phedre and The Trojan Women at the Stratford Festival.

Rehearsals with Shamata have gone well, McKenna said.

"I never know if anything's working," she added with a laugh. "But I certainly know if I'm having a good time here. And I'm enjoying this a lot."

The play's title, The Year of Magical Thinking, refers to a phrase Didion learned while reading about anthropology.

"Primitive tribes," she writes, "operating on magical thinking. 'If' thinking. If we sacrifice the virgin -- the rain will come back."

Didion -- an urbane Manhattan-based writer with an international reputation -- was surprised to find herself making similar bargains. For instance, she found it difficult to give away her late husband's shoes because "he would need shoes if he was to return."

The deaths took a physical as well as emotional toll on Didion. Only five-foot-one and always fragile, she watched her weight drop into the 70s after the tragedies robbed her of her appetite. This year Didion -- who declined an interview request -- was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters by Harvard University.

Both Shamata and McKenna stress The Year of Magical Thinking is a chance to explore little-discussed topics in a powerful, moving manner.

And it's far from a downer.

"I know the play talks about coping with the death of loved ones," McKenna said. "But it's also about the loved ones."

achamberlain@tc.canwest.com