Southwick Barn Theatre

Steyning Drama Company brings The Memory of Water to the stage.

Spokeswoman Liz Trundle said: “Sense and Sensibility, Little Women and The Mitford Sisters are all classic stories about sisters; The Memory of Water is the same. Now Shelagh Stephenson’s acclaimed play comes to the stage once again with a fresh interpretation by the Steyning Drama Company.”

The Memory of Water will run from Thursday, November 19 to Saturday, November 21 at 7.30pm (doors open 7pm) at Southwick Barn Theatre. Tickets £12 on www.ticketsource.com/barn-theatre-southwick or contact the box office on 0333 666 3366.

“Awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2000, the play centres on three sisters, Teresa, Mary and Catherine, who gather at their family home to prepare for their mother Vi’s funeral.

“A key theme of The Memory of Water is how the sisters share very different memories of their childhood; a world of disputed bicycle rides, midnight ice-cream sodas, mother's cocktail dresses and perfume advice and a seaside childhood punctuated by an aloof, often absent father. Teresa, Mary and Catherine's individual personalities act as a springboard to the play’s comedic interactions, distracting the sisters from their grief.”

Director Helen Day said: “That is one of the things I really like about The Memory of Water. Each of the women has independent, adult lives but as soon as they return to the family home with each other, they revert to the childhood roles and suddenly the old family dynamics are in full flood again.

“I don't personally think of it as a comedy in the conventional sense. The comedy comes from the characters and their relationships rather than the situation itself. People don’t stop being themselves when someone has died. They still argue, they still bicker, they say inappropriate things and they laugh at things that they shouldn’t. The play exposes the juxtaposition between humour alongside grief and loss.”

Meanwhile, Frank, Teresa’s husband, and Mike, Mary’s lover, enter that family dynamic from the outside, much like the audience of the play. They offer a perspective into the present and possible clues to the sisters’ ongoing paths.

“Ideally, I want the audience to leave the theatre feeling they’ve been on an emotional journey,” says Helen. “And that they might recognise something of themselves and their own family within the sibling group; those old tensions and patterns that surface as soon as the family are reunited.

“The play doesn’t give us a neat ending, and I don’t think it needs to. Families aren’t neat and grief certainly isn’t. What I hope though is that by the end we witness some shift between the sisters. The ending of a life for one is just the start of life without them for those remaining.”