 The Memory of Water, by Shelagh Stephenson, won the Laurence Olivier Award, the British equivalent of a Tony, for Best New Comedy in 1996. The story, about three adult sisters who return to the family home to bury their mother, Vi (who has died of Alzheimer’s), doesn’t sound much like a comedy. It is not a farce like On the Razzle, but a contemporary “tragi-comedy” with a mixture of love and anger, heartbreak and laughter — much like real life.
Teresa, the oldest sister, runs a mail-order food supplement business with her husband Frank, who would rather be running a pub. Mary, the most successful of the three, is a doctor having an affair with Mike, a married colleague. Catherine, the baby of the family, is forever running off with her latest Spanish boyfriend. Her response to stress is to take drugs and go shopping for shoes. Each sister has her own hopes, fears, triumphs, and failures, and each has her own very different memories of their shared childhood.
During the two days leading up to the funeral, they bicker about whose memories are more correct, and a long-held, heartbreaking secret is brought out into the open. Amid the tears and laughter this ultimately joyous, life-affirming play makes a powerful statement about the nature of family, that we are always our parents’ children (no matter how hard we try not to be) and, above all, the importance of forgiveness. |
