After 18 months, of living through a global pandemic, you’d be forgiven for thinking twice before booking tickets to see a play that focuses on grief, memory and loss. However, this Olivier award-winning comedy is exactly what the doctor ordered and is indeed inspired programming by recently appointed artistic director Roxanna Silbert. The Memory of Water which premiered at the Hampstead Theatre in 1996, is in fact, just the antidote for a covid-fatigued audience.
Shelagh Stephenson’s sharp, witty and poignant play is about three sisters, Teresa (Lucy Black), Mary (Laura Rogers) and Catherine (Carolina Main), who after years of separation, come together before their mother's funeral. As they grapple with her passing and the ensuing breakdown of familial etiquette, different versions of childhood events and family History rise to the surface. Unable to agree on any given point of any memory, the siblings squabble and it is whilst navigating the indiscrepancies of their versions of the past, they are forced to face the present and their own hidden lies and self-betrayals. Celebrating the familial bond, it is very entertaining and farcical. However, it poses more serious questions about the (un)reliability of memory, the illusiveness of time and the devastating effects of grief which manifest differently in the three sisters.
