美国国家公共电台 NPR 'It's Very Lonely': Kathleen Turner Stars As Joan Didion In 'Magical Thinking'

'It's Very Lonely': Kathleen Turner Stars As Joan Didion In 'Magical Thinking'

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0006:07repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser¹ to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: 

Her comatose³ daughter is on life support. Her beloved husband has a massive heart attack and dies. Joan Didion's book about death and her family's life became a best-seller in 2005. Her daughter, Quintana, and her novelist husband, John Gregory Dunne, were then the focus of a Broadway play. Now, Oscar and Tony Award-nominee Kathleen Turner is its star in a new production at Arena⁴ Stage here in Washington. NPR's special correspondent Susan Stamberg reports on "The Year Of Magical Thinking."

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING")

KATHLEEN TURNER: (As Joan Didion) This is the wrong hospital. I think to myself that when John is stabilized⁵ I will have him moved...

SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE⁶: Kathleen Turner says it's a monster of a play, a mountain of sparely written words.

TURNER: You know how many words there are in 80 minutes? My, God.

STAMBERG: She's up there all by herself, no other cast members, just her.

TURNER: Lonely - it's very lonely.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING")

TURNER: (As Joan Didion) I go further. A plan falls into place.

G. T. UPCHURCH: You could still do the same amount of sipping⁸, standing⁹ here and then turn and saying...

TURNER: OK, let's try.

STAMBERG: Rehearsing a week before opening night, Turner and her director G.T. Upchurch go over blocking, where to walk, how many sips¹⁰ of tea, when to sip⁷ them.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING")

TURNER: (As Joan Didion) I tell myself that when John is stabilized, I will move him to Columbia. He will need a bed with telemetry.

STAMBERG: As Joan Didion, Kathleen Turner strides across the bare rehearsal¹¹ hall, confident, assured, pushing back her long thick hair from time to time - sexy gesture, a reminder¹² of her breakthrough role in the torrid 1981 film "Body Heat." And that voice - Cabernet-soaked someone described it - so different from Didion's.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

JOAN DIDION: One day when I was talking on the telephone in his office, I mindlessly turned the pages of the dictionary that he'd always left open on the table by the desk.

STAMBERG: This is Didion from my 2005 interview.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

DIDION: When I realized what I had done, I was stricken. What word had he last looked up? What had he been thinking? By turning the pages, had I lost the message?

STAMBERG: At age 81, Joan Didion is bobby-pin thin.

TURNER: I know she's a pin, a tiny little thing, right? And I am anything but tiny, little or frail¹³.

STAMBERG: And there's something hypnotic about Didion's speech.

I want to talk to you about voice 'cause you've got - you have one of the most noteworthy voices in life. Joan Didion - she's got a very soft voice.

TURNER: Yeah.

STAMBERG: And there's a little - there's almost the edge of a whine¹⁴ to it.

TURNER: Yeah.

STAMBERG: And kind of nasal - so different from yours.

TURNER: Yeah, so different - so different. I, you know, I just can't - I just, you know, if people want just to have Joan Didion, then they're just going to have to forgive me because that's not what I'm doing.

STAMBERG: She's not imitating Didion. She is portraying¹⁵ a woman who is dealing¹⁶ with grief and grasping for life - strong and vulnerable, fierce sometimes. She struggles to banish¹⁷ self-pity as she faces unimaginable loss - the daughter in a coma², the husband, dead. She has a year of magical thinking about a message in an open dictionary and doing things so he would return.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

DIDION: Yeah, I went kind of crazy. I mean, I think everybody does.

TURNER: She gives away his T-shirts and his sweatpants and socks and his Brooks¹⁸ Brothers shorts. But when she goes to throw away his shoes, she stops, and she realizes she can't do it. And then after a moment's thought, she realizes the reason she can do it is because he'll need them when he comes back.

STAMBERG: At 62, Kathleen Turner has had losses that help her connect to this play.

TURNER: I really started on this exploration last year when my mother died. We were very close, and it was a good death as it goes, you know, but I miss her very much. And it does leave this absence that - it's hard to grasp, you know? So this became more of a universal search for me. You know, the magical thinking is if thinking. If we sacrifice the virgin¹⁹, then the rain will come, you know, kind of thing. So there's all this wonderful pretense²⁰, but it's not - it's not bad pretense. It's wishful, hopeful, but it's still completely misleading.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING")

TURNER: (As Joan Didion) You think you see it straight, but you won't - no. You'll be standing in the ER, and on one level, you'll have a pretty clear idea of whatever it was that just happened. But you'll see it as a kind of first draft.

STAMBERG: What do you do to get through the worst things that happened to you? Within two years, Didion lost her husband and their daughter. The play pays special attention to the daughter. How can we protect the ones we love? Kathleen Turner has met the author at various events over the years, but she hasn't discussed the drama with Didion or reread the book on which it's based.

TURNER: Yeah, not recently, I don't want to. You know, a good script, everything I need is in it, is in the script. I don't want to know too much. I don't want to know too much outside the script.

STAMBERG: The script is Joan Didion's, based on her memoir²¹. Kathleen Turner is performing "The Year Of Magical Thinking" at Arena Stage until late November. In Washington, I'm Susan Stamberg, NPR News.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 coma   

n.昏迷，昏迷状态

参考例句：

• The patient rallied from the coma.病人从昏迷中苏醒过来。
• She went into a coma after swallowing a whole bottle of sleeping pills.她吃了一整瓶安眠药后就昏迷过去了。

3 comatose   

adj.昏睡的，昏迷不醒的

参考例句：

• Those in extreme fear can be put into a comatose type state.那些极端恐惧的人可能会被安放进一种昏迷状态。
• The doctors revived the comatose man.这个医生使这个昏睡的苏醒了。

4 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。

5 stabilized   

v.（使）稳定， （使）稳固( stabilize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The patient's condition stabilized. 患者的病情稳定下来。
• His blood pressure has stabilized. 他的血压已经稳定下来了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 sip   

v.小口地喝，抿，呷；n.一小口的量

参考例句：

• She took a sip of the cocktail.她啜饮一口鸡尾酒。
• Elizabeth took a sip of the hot coffee.伊丽莎白呷了一口热咖啡。

8 sipping   

v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She sat in the sun, idly sipping a cool drink. 她坐在阳光下懒洋洋地抿着冷饮。
• She sat there, sipping at her tea. 她坐在那儿抿着茶。

9 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

10 sips   

n.小口喝，一小口的量( sip的名词复数 )v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• You must administer them slowly, allowing the child to swallow between sips. 你应慢慢给药，使小儿在吸吮之间有充分的时间吞咽。 来自辞典例句
• Emission standards applicable to preexisting stationary sources appear in state implementation plans (SIPs). 在《州实施计划》中出现了固定污染的排放标准。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

11 rehearsal   

n.排练，排演；练习

参考例句：

• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。
• You can sharpen your skills with rehearsal.排练可以让技巧更加纯熟。

12 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

13 frail   

adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的

参考例句：

• Mrs. Warner is already 96 and too frail to live by herself.华纳太太已经九十六岁了，身体虚弱，不便独居。
• She lay in bed looking particularly frail.她躺在床上，看上去特别虚弱。

14 whine   

v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣

参考例句：

• You are getting paid to think,not to whine.支付给你工资是让你思考而不是哀怨的。
• The bullet hit a rock and rocketed with a sharp whine.子弹打在一块岩石上，一声尖厉的呼啸，跳飞开去。

15 portraying   

v.画像( portray的现在分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• The artist has succeeded in portraying my father to the life. 那位画家把我的父亲画得惟妙惟肖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ding Ling was good at portraying figures through careful and refined description of human psychology. 《莎菲女士的日记》是丁玲的成名作，曾引起强烈的社会反响。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

16 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

17 banish   

vt.放逐，驱逐；消除，排除

参考例句：

• The doctor advised her to banish fear and anxiety.医生劝她消除恐惧和忧虑。
• He tried to banish gloom from his thought.他试图驱除心中的忧愁。

18 brooks   

n.小溪( brook的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Brooks gave the business when Haas caught him with his watch. 哈斯抓到偷他的手表的布鲁克斯时，狠狠地揍了他一顿。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ade and Brooks exchanged blows yesterday and they were severely punished today. 艾德和布鲁克斯昨天打起来了，今天他们受到严厉的惩罚。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

20 pretense   

n.矫饰，做作，借口

参考例句：

• You can't keep up the pretense any longer.你无法继续伪装下去了。
• Pretense invariably impresses only the pretender.弄虚作假欺骗不了真正的行家。

21 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。