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The Memory of Water

Review

Slow first-act paces makes this a comedy of two halves

Funerals can be seminal moments in family life: Relatives finally say what they thought of the deceased, tensions rise to the surface and secrets are revealed.

Shelagh Stephenson's play captures the pre-funeral mood perfectly. Three sisters return to their mother's house to deal with the aftermath of her demise and the strains in their relationships soon show through.

This is not a depressing play though. It's actually an award-winning comedy and Stephenson's dry wit and ear for comedic vocabulary are in the same league as Alan Bennett and Victoria Wood. She's no slouch at the poignant bits either.

The thought-provoking themes in her script include the significance of childhood memories, the influence of our parents' characters on our own life choices and both the stability and fragility of family bonds.

The inclusion of the dead mother in fantasy sequences means we even hear what Alzheimer's disease feels like.

HumDrum AmDram had just four weeks to rehearse this, after their previous show.

Most of the time, you'd never guess: Caz Gilmore's acerbic Doctor Mary combines deft one-liners with moments of gut-wrenching sadness and Elspeth Holm is refreshingly natural as drugged-up, insecure Catherine.

The action also zips along seamlessly in the second half and there are some neat directorial flourished from James Cross on his debut.

A shame then that the pace in the first act didn't match it on the first night.

Too many unnecessary pauses slowed down the comedy, which made it difficult to change the pace for more moving dialogue.

Neil Pugmire - The News (reproduced with permision)