Award-winning playwright Shelagh Stephenson was born in Northumberland and read drama at Manchester University. The Memory of Water was her first stage play. It opened at the Hampstead Theatre in 1996 and transferred to the West End, where it won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy in 2000. The title of the piece derives from the scientific observation that if water has a curative element added to it and then taken out, it will retain the curative effects, suggesting that water has a form of memory. Stephenson in turn explores the nature of memories for three sisters and their relationship with their mother. You can run away from your family but you will always carry memories and inherited traits that you can't run away from. This play was originally based on a family reunion by half-way through writing it Stephenson's own mother died; this may explain the many emotional journeys the characters make before the funeral, and the more tragic elements of this comedy..
Before directing this production I felt strongly that the set would need to represent more than just the mother's bedroom. At the beginning of the play we are told that the sea will eventually take the house and all the memories it holds, hence the sea advancing and the walls exposed to the elements. As death can rip us away from our loved ones so is the mother's bedroom ripped away from the house with its foundations exposed, a platform for the sisters to assess their own foundations.
A film of the play, due to be released later this year, will star Julie Walters and John Hannah.
I'd like to thank the cast and crew for their enthusiasm, commitment and patience with me! I'd particularly like to thank Brandon for leaving his funny legs and neck in Brighton and Helena for being a producer extrordinaire.