Last night, Vanessa Redgrave performed her one-woman show, The Year of Magical Thinking, here at the Salzburg Festival. This is the piece written by Joan Didion, a writer who got her start at NR. (Did you know that?) I know that Redgrave is considered one of our greatest living actresses, whatever her worth as a human being. I did not quite see that. But I’m not here to give you theater criticism — that can wait.

I thought you’d like to know about what happened after the play. Redgrave, along with Jürgen Flimm, the artistic director of the festival, did a reading. And what did they read? “Poems from Guantánamo” — these are verses written by terror detainees held by the U.S. government.

Now, I know you can fashion your own commentary — you don’t need any from me. And there are a hundred things to say. Like . . . is this the sort of thing that marks a civilization’s end? And . . . does this thoroughly illustrate the mindset of European elites? (Yes.) And . . . if the U.S. government did not hold these people — who would? Would English actresses or Salzburg officials like these dear poets living at their house? (Maybe we can send them to them.)

After the reading (which I did not attend), someone said that these poems expressed the feelings of the detainees — their longing for their family and so on. Okay. Say that some of these detainees are genuine victims, rather than victimizers — I doubt it, but just say. A lot of people have longings, feel pain, and chafe against injustice. Think of the victims of the Taliban, and of Saddam Hussein’s regime, and of al Qaeda, among others.

If they wrote poems — would they ever, ever, be read out at the Salzburg Festival, by one of the world’s most famous actresses and the festival director? Ever?

Friends, I don’t know if these are the end times, but they are strange times.