The Memory of Water tells the story of three sisters, Mary, Teresa and Catherine, who have returned to the family home to attend the funeral of their mother, Vi, who has died of Alzheimer’s disease. Teresa, the eldest sister, is played by Tina Kellegher as worn down by the sorrow and toil of being her mother’s primary carer. She is busy organising wreaths and undertakers while Mary, a successful psychotherapist, played with a wry grace by Jenni Ledwell, would rather occupy her mind with treatment plans for a patient’s post-traumatic amnesia than the practicalities of the funeral arrangements. The women are emotionally charged and stressed and into this dynamic comes Catherine, the youngest sister - a pot smoking, hypochondriac shopaholic whose relationship history is dysfunctional, disorganised and ultimately disappointing. Played with brio by Emily Nagle, Catherine pushes her sisters to extremes of anger and frustration that allow the play to move between hilarity and pathos.
Stephenson’s script has an emotional depth but a lightness of touch that turns what could be a heavyweight night in the theatre into one that passes quickly but lingers in memory. Sensitively directed by Ben Barnes, the play moves easily between raucous comedy and touching pathos and takes the themes of love, loss, jealousy, death and reconciliation and makes them resonant, funny and poignant. The theme of the subjectivity of memory is at the heart of the play and, as the sisters reminisce and realise that they each remember their past differently, it becomes obvious that how each woman deals with her memories of the past so that she might successfully live in the present is what is important, rather than attempts to pinpoint the exact details of what, when and whom.
Set in Vi’s bedroom, Joe Vanek’s design cleverly includes the small details of everyday life such as cast off pairs of shoes, a dressing gown hanging on the back of the bedroom door, trinket boxes and other such feminine paraphernalia which suggest all the particulars that construct a person’s exterior life. But the design also evokes an interior or private place where what is felt but rarely spoken of finds expression. The set consists of one large bedroom with a walk-in wardrobe and a door to a small hallway off stage. A typical and possibly uninspiring setting perhaps, but Vanek positions the corner of the room angling centrally upstage and this angle, at odds with the traditional orientation of a room, suggests that this space will provide a new perspective to those who inhabit it. Additionally one section of wall extends higher than that surrounding it and within that section a large crack opens and knifes downwards destabilising the perceived naturalism of the set below and suggesting each woman’s frailty and struggle to survive in a difficult world.
On a practical level the set provides seating for the cast to find refuge when not involved in progressing the scene, but Vanek might have offered Barnes more options as, occasionally, Michael Power who plays Teresa’s husband Frank, and Charlie Bonner, who plays Mary’s married boyfriend Mike, appear awkward and uncomfortable leaning against walls or window frames. However, his solution to getting Vi (Lynda Gough) on and off stage through the walk-in wardrobe is both neat and appropriate to a character who can remember what she wore when, where and why. Vanek’s set is complemented by Eamon Fox’s lighting design which lights the naturalistic scenes with a full bright wash but creates a dappled blue/green lightshadow for the scenes between Mary and Vi creating a delicate translucent light that adds greatly to the emotional power of the text and performances.
The Theatre Royal production expresses the sharp edged comedy of Stephenson’s text and allows the pathos to emerge in delicate contrast. At times Barnes' direction might allow the women’s emotions to emerge more gradually but, on the whole, the production is successful and, at the close of the play, Vi’s death is funny and sad but ultimately life affirming.
Úna Kealy is a lecturer in the Department of Creative and Performing Arts in Waterford Institute of Technology.