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The Memory of Water
by
Shelagh Stephenson
Reviewed by
Chris Shinn
At first
glance, a play about three sisters assembling at the family home
for their mother’s funeral would not seem to be the subject for
rip-roaring laughter. However, on the first night of Combined
Actors’ spring production, it was obvious that this was not to
be too sombre an occasion.
The action
takes place in a converted downstairs bedroom of a seaside
house. This was well represented by Tony Broscomb’s set,
complete with rather large crack down one wall. Lighting was
good and varied (except for one or two first night glitches).
Three strong
actresses are needed for the roles of the three sisters and
director Clive Young definitely made the right choice in
his casting. We witnessed three superb performances from
Cathy McCluskey as Mary, Geraldine Hindley as Teresa
and Helen Holgate as Catherine. There was nothing to
choose between them as they brilliantly conveyed the various
differences and indeed similarities in their characters. Their
many laugh lines were well controlled and delivered, but each
was able instantly to turn the laughter to silence when the
script demanded a poignant touch. Excellent. These three were
very well supported by Steve Kennett as Mike, Mary’s
married boyfriend and Colin McLean as Teresa’s long
suffering husband Frank. Lindsey McAuley had a much more
difficult role to convey as Vi, the ghost of the girls’ mother,
as it was not until the second act that she had any really
meaningful dialogue, by which time the three sisters were well
into their stride. Perhaps because of this, I felt that she
tended to be overshadowed by her daughters. Not that this was a
bad performance from Lindsey, she was just up against a tour de
force.
Overall this
was an excellent evening’s theatre. I was surprised at how funny
the play was, with this talented cast never missing the chance
to wring every last laugh from the well-written script. Equally
they were able to convey the poignant moments with ease.
Many thanks
and congratulations to Clive Young and his team for
bringing a warm glow to an otherwise decidedly cool ADC.
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