The Memory of Water
The Peacock Theatre, Dublin
The name Shelagh Stephenson may not be familiar to Irish theatre audiences but in Britain her plays have garnered several prestigious awards. One of her most successful works - 'The Memory Of Water' - won last year's Olivier award for best comedy and opened last week at Dublin's Peacock Theatre.
While the play is swept along by a specific current of humour, it focuses largely on the themes of familial conflict and unravelling the past. Three sisters have gathered at the family home after the death of their mother. Mary (Jane Brennan) is a successful, careerist doctor and Teresa (Marion O'Dwyer) runs a health supplement business with her husband. Catherine (Dawn Bradfield), the youngest, makes terrible life decisions and juggles coquettishness and insecurity rather badly.
The action focuses on the death of trio's mother, Vi, who makes eerie entrances from time to time. Slowly, they begin to dissect their upbringing, realising that some of their memories are merely wished-for illusions, falsified by time and empty disappointment.
At one point, a male character discusses scientific experiments on water: "You can remove every curative element from a water solution and it will still retain its beneficial effect...this meant water was like magnetic tape. That water had memory." This consistency demonstrated by one of the elements contrasts sharply with the unevenness of human memory.
The script reads very well, but there's something about the actual performance that doesn't translate. Humour that looks acerbic on paper comes across on stage as situation comedy. 'The Memory of Water' reads like a hybridisation of Harold Pinter and Caryl Churchill, but in actuality, it doesn't quite reach that level. The inherent Englishness of the characters doesn't really work in an Irish context and perhaps using the original British cast (Alison Steadman and Julia Sawalha) and setting would have more of an impact. Nevertheless, it is at times moving, at others very funny, and the cast do an admirable job, particularly Dawn Bradfield, Jane Brennan and Mark O'Regan.
Sinéad Gleeson
'The Memory of Water' is at The Peacock Theatre, Dublin from Tuesday 29 May to Saturday 30 June.
