The Memory of Water

Sibling rivalry, familial guilt and black humour permeate the script of Shelagh Stephenson’s 1996 The Memory of Water as three sisters, who share little in common, reunite in the family home on the eve of their mother Vi’s, funeral. Childhood memories, remembered differently by each, come flooding back as they rummage through their mother’s belongings in her bedroom and come to terms with her death of Alzheimer’s disease.

Teresa, the eldest, lives happily in a second marriage with Frank and together they run a health food business. A vegan and obsessive about diet, she micro-manages to the nth degree. Mary, the middle daughter, is a successful but discontented doctor who is having an affair with an equally successful doctor but he’s married. Catherine, the baby, is a spoilt immature young woman who can’t seem to maintain and hold on to a relationship with a man. Prone to fits of pique she shops to hide her insecurities. All three bicker, argue, and laugh, as they try on their mother’s clothes, drink too much, and smoke pot.

Debra Bela gave an assured, many-layered performance as Mary whose demons were not only her fractured relationship with her mother but also a long held secret from her past. An embittered woman, we understood her, but didn’t like her.

Carrie O’Rourke as Teresa was mind-numbingly real. Fussy to the point of desperation, she handled the transition from chief cook and bottle-washer of the family to belligerent and occasional foul-mouthed drunk with experienced skill. That she wore the trousers in her marriage was not in question.

Anna Ibbotson gave the best performance of the night as the wilful Catherine. A statuesque beauty, she pouted and primped with arrogance, and managed to evoke a smidgen of sympathy for her lot as the youngest sibling.

Renaud Jadin also evoked sympathy in the well-written role of Mike, the adulterer who already has kids and doesn’t want any more even if it would satisfy Mary’s ticking body time-clock. Samantha Townsend was a commanding presence in her brief appearances as the ghostly apparition of Vi.

Gary Kliger as Frank seemed to be in another play. The nicest of all the characters on the stage, his mannered performance full of physical and vocal ticks irritated to the point of wishing he were in the coffin instead of Mum. He was the only misstep in Sharon White’s solid production.

Peter Pinne