The Memory of Water
by Shelagh Stephenson2
1
Act One
Blackness. A pool of bluish green light3 reveals Vi, aged around forty. She is sitting at a dressing-table.
The drawer is open. She wears a green taffeta cocktail frock circa 1962 4. She is sexy, immaculately
made up, her hair perfectly coiffed. She wears earrings and a matching necklace, and carries a clutch
bag, from which she takes a cigarette and lighter. She lights up. The pool of light opens up to reveal the
rest of the room in a dim, golden, unreal glow5: a bedroom, dominated by a double bed in which Mary
lies, wearing a pair of sunglasses. She watches Vi. The room is slightly old fashioned, with dressingtable and matching wardrobe. Some clothes are draped over a chair 6. There is a long diagonal crack
running across the wall behind the bed7. An open suitcase lies on the floor, half unpacked, a half-full
bottle of whisky and a pile of books on the bedside table.8
Mary What do you want?9
Vi Someone’s been going through these drawers.
Mary Not me.
Vi What did you think you’d find?10
Mary Nothing.
She closes the drawer and looks over to the bed.
Vi That crack’s getting worse. Have you noticed anything about the view?
Mary No.
Vi It’s closer.
Mary What is?
Vi The sea. Fifty yards closer. It’ll take the house eventually. All gone without a trace. Nothing left.
And all the life that happened here, drowned, sunk. As if it had never been.
Mary D’you remember a green tin box with chrysanthemums on it?11
Vi No.
Mary It had papers in it. It’s gone. Where is it?
Vi I’ve no idea.
Mary What have you done with it?
Vi picks up some books from the bedside table and looks through the titles.
Vi Head Injuries and Short-Term Changes in Neural Behaviour .. . The Phenomenology of Memory
...Peripheral Signalling of the Brain.
She puts them down.
Bloody hell, Mary. What’s wrong with Georgette Heyer?12
Go to black. Fade up bedside lamp. Vi has gone. Mary is lying prostrate. She stirs and gets out of
bed, goes to the dressing-table, opens drawers, rifles through them13. The phone rings.
Mary Hello? ...What time is it? ... I wouldn’t be talking to you if I was, would I? I’d be unconscious
...Where are you? ...Jesus ...you’re what? So will you want me to pick you up from the station?
The door opens and Teresa comes in.
Teresa Oh .. .
Mary Hold on ... (To Teresa.) It’s not for you.
Teresa Who is it?
Mary (to caller) What? She’s gone where? ... OK, OK. I’ll see you later. Are you sure you don’t want
me to pick you up –
She’s cut off
Hello? ...Shit.
Teresa Who was that?
Mary A nuisance caller. We struck up a rapport.14
Teresa He’s not staying here, is he?
Mary Who?
Teresa I’m presuming it’s your boyfriend.
Mary How much sleep have I had?
She picks up a portable alarm clock and peers at it.
Teresa How’s his wife?15
Mary Jesus. Two and a half hours.
She flops back on the pillows. Looks at Teresa.
Why are you looking so awake?
Teresa I’ve been up since quarter past five. Presumably he’s leaving her at home, then.
Mary You’ve got that slight edge in your voice. Like a blunt saw.16
Teresa I’m just asking
Mary Of course he’s bloody leaving her at home. She’s gone to stay with her mother.
Teresa I thought she was ill.
Mary Maybe she went in an iron lung. Maybe she made a miracle recovery. I don’t know. I didn’t
ask.
Teresa Where’s he going to sleep?
Mary What?
Teresa You can’t sleep with him in that bed.
Mary He’s staying in a hotel.
Teresa I thought it might be something important.
Mary What?
Teresa The phone. Funeral directors or something.17
Mary We’ve done all that. Can I go back to sleep?
Teresa And where’s Catherine?
Mary She said she might stay over with someone.
Teresa Does still have friends here?18
Mary Probably. I don’t know.
She turns away, settles down, and shuts her eyes. Teresa watches her for a while.
Teresa She could have phoned to say. Anything could have happened to her. It’s still snowing. 19
Mary She’s thirty-three, Teresa.
Teresa The roads are terrible.
Mary She’ll get a taxi.
Teresa Probably just as well she didn’t come home. She’d have probably drunk four bottles of cider
and been brought home in a police car. And then she’d have been sick all over the television.
Mary She was thirteen when she did that. 20
Teresa She was lucky she didn’t get electrocuted.
Mary It wasn’t switched on.
Teresa Yes it was, I was watching it. It was The High Chaparral.21
Mary No it wasn’t. I wish you’d stop remembering things that didn’t actually happen.
Teresa I was there. You weren’t.
Mary gives up trying to sleep. Sits up.
Mary I was there.
Teresa That was the other time. The time when she ate the cannabis.
Mary That was me. I ate hash cookies.
Teresa It was Catherine.
Mary It was me.
Teresa I was there.
Mary So where was I?
Teresa Doing your homework probably. Dissecting frogs. Skinning live rabbits. Strangling cats. The
usual.22
Mary Teresa. I’d like to get another hour’s sleep. I’m not in the mood, OK?
She tries to settle down in the bed, and pulls something out that’s causing her discomfort: a glass
contraption with a rubber bulb at one end. She puts it on the bedside table and settles down again.
Teresa picks it up.
Teresa Oh, for God’s sake ... Is this what I think it is?
Mary I don’t know. What d’you think it is?
Teresa A breast pump.
Mary I found it on top of the wardrobe. I think I’d like to have it. 23
Teresa Why?
Mary Because you’ve got the watch and the engagement ring.
Teresa For Lucy. Not for me. For Lucy.
Mary OK. So you want the breast pump. Have it.
Teresa I don’t want it. 24
Mary Good. That’s settled. Now let me go to sleep.
Teresa You can’t just take things willy-nilly.
Mary You did.
Teresa Oh, I see. I see what this is about.
Mary sits up.
Mary It’s not about anything, it’s about me trying to get some sleep. For Christ’s sake, Teresa, it’s
too early in the morning for this.
Mary pulls the covers over her head. Silence. Teresa goes to the door, turns back.
Teresa Could you keep off the phone, I'm waiting for Frank to ring and my mobile's recharging –
Mary If you take that phone to the funeral this time –
Teresa Oh, go to sleep.
Mary sits up.
Mary I'm surprised Dad didn't burst out of his coffin and punch you.25
Teresa I didn't know it was in my bag.
Mary You could have turned it off. You didn't have to speak to them.
Teresa I didn't speak to them.
Mary You did. I heard you. You told them you were in a meeting.
Teresa You're imagining this. This is a completely false memory.
Mary All memories are false. 26
Teresa Mine aren't.
Mary Yours in particular.
Teresa Oh, I see, mine are all false but yours aren't.
Mary That's not what I said.
Teresa And what's with the Ray-Bans?
Mary takes them off.
Mary I couldn't sleep with the light on.
Teresa You could have turned it off.
Mary I was frightened of the dark.
Teresa When did this start?
Mary It's all right for you. You're not sleeping in her bed.
Teresa Oh, for goodness' sake.
Mary You grabbed the spare room pretty sharpish.
Teresa I was here first.27
Mary Have the sheets been changed?28
Teresa Yes.
Mary When?
Teresa What difference does it make?
Mary I don’t like sleeping in her bed, that’s all.
Teresa She didn’t die in it. 29
Mary She was the last person in it. It’s full of bits of skin and hair that belong to her –
Teresa Stop it –
Mary And it makes me feel uncomfortable –
Teresa What bits of skin and hair?
Mary You shed cells. They fall off when you’re asleep. I found a toenail before.
Teresa Please.
Mary I thought I might keep it in a locket round my neck. Or maybe you’d like it.30
Teresa Stop it, for goodness’ sake.
She picks up a book from the bedside table.
You can’t leave work alone for five minutes, can you, even at a time like this?
Mary I’ve a very sick patient.
Teresa You had a very sick mother. 31
Mary Don’t start, Teresa.
Teresa Oh, she never complained. Because your job’s important. I mean, doctors are second to God,
whereas Frank and I only have a business to run, so obviously we could drop everything at a moment’s
notice. 32
Mary It’s not my fault.
Silence.
Teresa Why do we always do this?
Mary What?
Teresa Why do we always argue?
Mary We don’t argue, we bicker.
Teresa OK, why do we bicker?
Mary Because we don’t get on.
Teresa Yes we do.
Mary Oh, have it your own way. 33
She unscrews the whisky and takes a swig. Teresa looks at her, aghast.
Teresa You haven’t even got out of bed yet. 34
Mary It’s the only way we’re going to get through this.
She offers it to Teresa, who shakes her head.
Teresa D’you often have a drink in the morning?
Mary Of course I bloody don’t, what d’you think I am?
Teresa Lots of doctors are alcoholics. It’s the stress.
Mary Someone dies, you drink whisky. It’s normal, it’s a sedative, it’s what normal people do at
abnormal times.
She takes another swig. Silence.
OK. Let’s be nice to each other.
Silence.
What do people usually talk about when their mother’s just died?
Teresa I don’t know. Funeral arrangements. What colour coffin. I’ve got a list somewhere.
Mary There should be a set form. Like those books on wedding etiquette. Sudden Death Etiquette.
Lesson One. Breaking the news. Phrases to avoid include: guess what?
Teresa I was distraught, I wasn’t thinking properly. 35
Mary I thought you’d won the lottery or something
Teresa It’s quite tricky for you, being nice, isn’t it?
Mary Sorry. I forgot. How are you feeling?
Teresa looks at her watch.
Teresa I was expecting him to phone an hour ago.
Mary I’m not talking about Frank.
Teresa I don’t know how I feel. Everything I eat tastes of salt.
Silence. She crosses the room and takes the whisky from Mary. She takes a swig and grimaces.
Salt. Everything tastes of it.
Hands it back. Sits on the bed.
The funeral director’s got a plastic hand.
Mary God.
Pause.
What’s it like?
Teresa Pink.
Mary What happened to his real one?
Teresa How should I know?
Mary Didn’t you ask him?
Teresa It didn’t seem appropriate.
Mary No. I suppose not.
Teresa He was showing us pictures of coffins.
Mary As they do.
Catherine (off) Hi! 36
Mary Oh God. 37
Teresa In here.
Catherine bursts in38, wrapped in layers of coats and scarves, laden with carrier bags. She divests
herself as she speaks.
Catherine God, it’s bloody freezing out there. It’s like Scott of the Antarctic39, the cab was sliding all
over the place and I had one of those drivers who kept saying, have you been shopping, are you going
somewhere nice? And I said, yes, actually, a funeral. My mother’s. I thought, that’ll shut him up, but it
turns out he knew her. I forgot what it’s like up here. Everyone knows the butcher’s daughter’s
husband’s mother’s cat. And he got all upset, we had to pull over, so anyway I invited him to the
funeral. He’s called Dougie. I bet he doesn’t come. God, I’ve got this really weird pain at the very
bottom of my stomach, here, look, just above my pubic bone. It keeps going sort of stab, twist, so either
I’ve got some sort of cyst, but actually, God, I know what it is, I bet. I bet I’m ovulating. Isn’t that
amazing? I can actually feel the egg being released. Although, hang on, I don’t think I’m due to
ovulate. You can’t ovulate twice in the same month, can you? It’s not my appendix because I haven’t
got one. Fuck. It must be PMT. In which case I think I’ve got an ovarian cyst. 40
Silence.
Mary D’you want us to take you to hospital or shall I whip it out now on the kitchen table? 41
Catherine I’ll be fine.
Mary Good, because I’m over the limit for either activity.
Catherine Oh brilliant, whisky.
She picks up the bottle and takes a slug.42
The Memory of Water is arguably Stephenson's greatest and most successful work. It opened at the
Hampstead Theatre of London in 1996 and after being published for the first time in 1997 it won the
Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy. It captured the attention of director Lewis Gilbert and
Stephenson adapted it into Gilbert's 2002 film 'Before You Go'. The play focuses on the events
surrounding the funeral of Vi, the mother of three sisters Teresa, Mary and Catherine. The theme of the
fluidity of memory is explored as the women recall their opposing memories of significant events,
uncover repressed memories and deal with the death of their mother to dementia. The title also refers to
the idea that water has a ‘memory’ of substances previously dissolved into it, a theory which aims to
support the idea of homeopathic therapy.
1
Born in Northumberland, Stephenson studied at Manchester University, wrote several radio plays for
the BBC, and has won a number of awards both for her work with the BBC and for her stage plays. Her
radio work includes Darling Peidi, The Anatomical Venus, and Five Kinds of Silence, while her most
successful stage plays include The Memory of Water and An Experiment With An Air Pump. She is
known for her 'engagement with the tension between memory and reality' and her urge to make sense
of our world by giving voice and character to other worlds. The Memory of Water was written soon
after the death of her own mother and although she claims that it is not biographical she also dealt with
family tension and the relationships with her sisters.
2
3
This specific lighting direction is significant as a semiotic device, creating an eerie atmosphere of
mystery and intrigue around the imagined character of Vi. It also creates a feeling parallel to the
suppressed, underwater quality of memory and the difficulty of reaching the truth behind something so
subjective as memory.
Vi’s character as through Mary’s eyes is subtly revealed to us through her costuming, detailing and
behaviour. Mary envisions her as she was in the 1960’s, when Mary would have been about 10,
romanticized as glamorous, careful, classy and vain.
4
5
The cigarette, a bringer of sickness and death, is the object that allows light to shine on the events we
watch; bringing illumination to the situation and enabling the women to understand Vi’s life and come
to terms with her death.
6
The house is lived-in, comfortable. The old-fashioned matching features of the room indicate that
they have not changed over time, as the relationships between the sisters have not developed since
leaving home, stuck as they were 20 years ago.
7
The cracked relationships and dysfunctional family the audience will soon learn about are
foreshadowed in this set feature; running behind the bed like the elusive memories and ‘happy family’
ideal.
8
Throughout The Memory of Water, characters are introduced, spoken about and given a presence
before they appear. These everyday items tell the audience key information about the character of
whoever is staying in the house (the suitcase would indicate this stay is temporary); her abandonment
of the unpacking, drinking habits and devotion to her reading.
The first line of the play, this direct question hints at Mary’s direct nature and the tension between her
and Vi, like a teenager sulkily grumbling at a parent when interrupted. Vi is not welcome here in
Mary’s subconscious.
9
Despite the gap in their relationship Vi’s knowingly indirect accusation catches Mary off guard and
her answer is soon revealed as a lie.
10
Vi’s contemplative comment on the passing of time, global warming and memory is cut off and
ignored by Mary, who, like a teenager, was not listening and had other things on her mind. She decides
that finding the box is more important than keeping up with her earlier lie.
11
Ignoring Mary’s accusation that she had something to do with the misplacement of the box, Vi’s
parting line in this scene shows Mary’s feelings about her mother’s judgements when she was growing
up. Georgette Heyer was a popular Regency Romance and Detective novelist during the mid 1900’s,
known for her ‘middle-brow, smutty’ historical fiction, revealing Vi’s somewhat failed attempt at being
classy and intellectual.
12
The sudden change of Mary’s position and her repetition of Vi’s earlier action (rifling through the
drawer) confirms that the encounter with Vi was imagined, evoking an atmosphere of the unreal, a
complement to the surreal lighting earlier.
13
Mary’s snarky comment and underlying reluctance to tell the truth to her own sister is reveals their
uncomfortable relationship.
14
This piece of expository information is not only a way for the audience to get to know Mary’s life
and her sisters’ roles in it (it is well-known she has a boyfriend who is married), but Teresa’s pointing
out of something painful again shows the intentional divide between the sisters.
15
Teresa incessantly presses on the sore subject of Mary’s boyfriend’s wife, causing discomfort in the
conversation for both the characters and the audience. Her ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude towards Mary is
expressed through her clear, articulate, condescending wording as contrasted with Mary’s crass
language. Mary recognizes and points this out, heightening the tense atmosphere between them.
16
17
This off-hand comment gives the audience an idea of why the women are gathered at the old house;
the context of the play begins to form as the viewer pieces it together.
18
The first mention of Catherine is given immediately before the question of whether she still has
friends in their hometown, juxtaposing her character and the her sisters’ uncertainty about her life. It
shrouds her character in mystery, and the audience begins to form attitudes towards her before she is
seen onstage.
19
Despite the discomfort between the three sisters Teresa is still worried about Catherine, and the
pathetic fallacy of the snow as the icy relationship between them all will melt as they reconnect and get
to know one another through the passing of their mother.
20
The mysterious character of Catherine is introduced in more detail and the audience draws an image
of what kind of person she is through Teresa’s harsh words, despite Mary’s defence that she was only
13.
This is the first dissonance between the women’s memories, creating a tension which returns often
throughout the play. It is ironic that Teresa should mention the detail of watching The High Chaparral,
a Western family drama, when their own family is so dysfunctional.
21
22
Whether or not this is a flippant sarcastic comment or genuine dig at something painful (like her
earlier poking at Mary’s boyfriend’s wife), it is the assertions of others which give the audience further
details into the characters that they do not choose to share openly.
Teresa’s disdainful comment and stubborn refusal to let Mary sleep brings about the sarcastic
teenager in Mary and even though she has no need for the breast pump that we are aware of, she claims
to want it.
23
24
The women, having presumably not seen each other for a long time, slip back into their childish
personalities throughout the play, as old memories are dragged into the light and examined so are their
personalities and the tension between them. The easy way in which they discuss the death of their
father leads the audience to assume that either it has been long enough since his passing that they have
accepted it, or they were never really close.
The women repeatedly make a point of each other’s past failings and mistakes, not aiding the
repairing of their relationships.
25
26
This surprisingly profound offhand comment forms one of the underlying messages carried by The
Memory of Water.
27
Teresa’s intention was to point out that she arrived at the house first and therefore was able to choose
the room she wanted, but makes a Freudian slip, revealing hidden frustration that Mary was born,
taking her place in their mother’s affections.
‘Changing the sheets’ is used as a metaphor for throwing out the old and cleaning dirty laundry; an
action the characters perform throughout the play, bringing old secrets out into the light, revealing
deceptions and misunderstandings, coming to terms with the ‘dirty laundry’ of the past and cleansing
their lives of them.
28
Teresa knowingly misunderstands Mary’s point; takes her discomfort with the bed literally instead of
understanding Mary’s problem with invading their mother’s personal area.
29
Mary knows that the small physical details of their mother’s life will disgust Teresa, taking on the
role of the ‘frustrating, attention-seeking middle child’ by being intentionally distasteful.
30
Already having learnt that Mary’s work involves psychology, the audience begins to piece together
the circumstances of their mothers death, which appears to be psychological.
31
Teresa holds some obvious bitterness relating to their mother’s focus on Mary and her work, and a
lack of respect for Teresa’s career. The bitterness relates to some past event which Mary will probably
deny ever happening; the audience begins to predict the tension that will occur in the near future.
33
Even in recognizing that they argue and bicker the two are not able to agree.
32
34
Teresa once again assumes the role of the judgemental older sister, even though she quickly
contradicts this moral high ground and drinks from the whiskey bottle.
35
The audience expects Teresa to deny that this was how she broke the news to Mary as it shows her in
a bad light and so far in the play the characters have altered their own memories to show themselves
more positively.
36
The minute the two older sisters begin to get along and have a conversation without immediately
disagreeing, albeit a conversation about something unimportant and irrelevant, they are interrupted and
not allowed to continue.
37
Two simple words give the audience a clear idea of how Mary feels towards Catherine and her
intruding.
38
This dramatic entrance shows the classic annoying youngest child behaviour of being noisy and
boisterous to be noticed by the self-absorbed mother and detached family.
A historical account of Robert Falcon Scott’s journey across the Antarctic, which the ever-presence
of death explored through The Memory of Water is made very clear in the fact that every main
character dies.
39
40
Catherine constant way of talking without waiting for an answer and assuming her sisters are
listening shows her as a petulant teenager, the baby of the family even though she is 33. The topics of
her speech change quickly, showing her short, childish attention span. She does not seem overly
distraught about her mother’s death; revealing either that she still in the denial stage where the strong
emotions have not hit yet, or she couldn’t care less and the annoyance of having a nosy taxi driver
break down is a bigger problem in her life.
Like an exasperated sigh, the two older sisters are frustrated by Catherine’s behaviour and although
they were arguing earlier they bond over this, forming a wall between them and her.
41
42
The alcohol is treated differently by each of the sisters; Teresa looks down on it with disdain and
views drinking as a lower class activity; Mary accepts it as the ‘thing normal people do at abnormal
times’ and Catherine just wants it for its own sake.