Steyning Drama Company

Seeing Shelagh Stephenson’s acclaimed drama The Memory of Water had a huge impact on Helen Day 30-odd years ago.

She admits, though, that she had rather forgotten about it in the meantime.

But Helen has come back to the play now, loving it just as much, but this time enjoying it from a rather different perspective.

Helen is directing the show for the Steyning Drama Company 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.

“I first saw it in London and I saw it with my sister and I thought it was wonderful. I'm one of four. This play is about three sisters and it is about the dynamics of the relationships between the sisters and that idea that we all grow up in the same family but in fact we don't have the same parents because our parents parent us at different stages and in different ways along the journey; that idea that we all get a very different experience even within the same family. And that really interested me.

“I think it's something that will resonate with so many families who will share that same experience of growing up and realising that they all have a different view of what happened within their family. It is three sisters having the shared experience of this strong and powerful mother but still growing up in different ways. We also have false memories.

“But I think one of the things that I really love about the play now is the juxtaposition with the situation around grief and loss and how that loss can bring out the best in us but also the worst in us but also in that period of grief, particularly raw grief when you have just lost somebody, it's about how humour can sit alongside that loss. That really resonated with me when we lost our mother ten years ago.

“When I first saw the play I was watching it from the perspective of the sisters, but now when I watch it I'm thinking about the loss of my mother. I think the piece has a universal appeal to young people that recognise the sibling relationships and the tension that that brings but also you can see it from that other perspective of grief, of understanding the loss and the dynamics between the sisters after that loss. You can recognise the maturity and the understanding and perhaps the greater compassion in that dynamic that comes with time.

Helen is delighted to return to the play now: “I recently moved from Hove to Steyning and I knew nobody in Steyning. I trained for the theatre many years ago and then subsequently decided that acting was not for me as a career. But when I moved to Steyning I knew that I wanted to go back to my first love which is the theatre. Steyning was a new place and a new beginning for me, and I wanted to be part of this wonderful community there at the drama company. They were looking for a new play to put on at The Barn and they were looking for somebody to direct it. Somebody put out a list of plays that they thought might be interesting and I saw The Memory Of Water and realised that I vaguely remembered it. I got the script and fell in love with it all over again. And it's bringing me such a lot of joy. I love working collaboratively and I love working creatively and I love working to understand the cast and their strengths as both people and as performers. I am really enjoying it.”