Reviews 2007
Reviews 2007
✭✭✭✩✩
by Shelagh Stephenson, directed by Barbara Larose
Alumnae Theatre, Toronto
September 28-October 13, 2007
British playwright Shelagh Stephenson’s The Memory of Water was such a big hit at the Tarragon in 1998 that the Mirvishes remounted it in 2000 at the Winter Garden Theatre proving only that some plays work better in smaller spaces. The first Toronto production since then is now playing at the Alumnae Theatre where the size is right but where the acting and direction are uneven.
The play uses the overly familiar device of the gathering of a dispersed family (in this case three sisters) for a family event (in this case the funeral of the mother) whereupon long-suppressed secrets of the past are revealed. What makes Stephenson’s play stand out is the wittiness of the writing and the attempt to grapple with the question of memory. “Who are you if you take away your memories?” someone asks. Stephenson suggests that while our conscious minds may alter what we remember, our subconscious is indelibly molded by the past. This would help explain why all three sisters have such varying views of their mother but in their personal lives seem bound to keep repeating her mistakes. Stephenson also moves the play away from the usual comic realism by allowing the ghost of the dead mother (Chantal Giroux) to chat with her middle daughter Mary (Tabitha Keats).
Under director Barbara Larose Act 2 runs much more smoothly that Act 1. In Act 1 everyone’s timing seems to be off and far too many of Stephenson’s funny lines are thrown away. By Act 2 when more serious themes come to light, the actors seem much more focussed and the action builds to a moving conclusion. Keast is a standout in the central role of the middle daughter Mary, a doctor to has to learn to heal herself. She is the more varied in expression and once she wins our sympathy in Act 1, she holds it until for the rest of the evening. Andy Fraser as her older sister Teresa seriously underplays her role in Act 1, but then in Act 2 shines in a wonderfully paced drunk scene. As Mary’s younger sister Catherine, Andrea Romaldi is rambunctious but just not as off-the-wall as her drugged-up character should be.
Andrew Batten is pleasant but bland as Mary’s married boyfriend Mike and should give us a clearer view of how he really regards their relationship. Connor O’Hegarty is excellent as Teresa’s sleep-deprived husband who feels its finally time for some truth-telling. Both Larose and Groulx make the mother’s ghost come off as distant and snobbish when we should see more clearly that she really an ordinary unliberated middle-class woman who likes to dress up to make herself feel special. As it is, this rich comedy does not evoke quite the piquant mixture of hilarity and melancholy it should.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2007-12-11.
Photo: Andrea Romaldi, Tabitha Keast and Andy Fraser.
2007-10-09
The Memory of Water