The Memory of Water

Opening in London in 1996, this first play by Shelagh Stephenson was awarded the prestigious Olivier Award for Best Comedy. Linking memory, bereavement and richly funny family relationships and events, it is given a full-on comedy production here by director Rachel Chant.

Set in a seaside Yorkshire house, expected to soon end up under water, an all-female family gather to deal with the death of their once sprightly mother from Alzheimer’s disease at 75. It’s Winter and blowing a gale, and the metaphor of water runs right through the play. 

Practical Teresa (Jo Dowling), the oldest, is busy organising and reviewing her mother’s dresses to go to a charity shop; Mary (Michala Banas), 39 and feeling it, is in her Mum’s bed trying hard to catch up on some sleep; the youngest, befuddled Catherine (Madeleine Jones), is a hot mess who craves love and attention. 

The three grown children bicker and squabble, laugh and rip into each other, watched occasionally by their dead mother Vi (Nicole Da Silva) who pops up in Mary’s memory. It’s all a deeply felt, richly funny study in female family doings.

The male side is upheld by Mary’s doctor/lover Mike (Johnny Nasser), who makes a spectacular Act One entrance through the bedroom window, snow blowing everywhere. And there’s Frank (Thomas Campbell), Teresa’s husband, a sincere hanger-on.

The title, The Memory of Water, derives from Homeopathy, Teresa and Frank’s business. Water, says Teresa, can remember the properties of a substance after it has been diluted and the substance is no longer present. There’s no getting away from families.

Rachel Chant is given the full backing of the Ensemble’s design team and makes her mark with this production. It’s a major achievement.

Set and Costumes are designed by Veronique Benett; the bedroom fittings and the left-overs of Vi’s life are exactly right. Lighting Design by Kelsey Lee.

Frank Hatherley

Photographer: Prudence Upton