Shelagh Stephenson’s award-winning snapshot of family life The Memory of Water is to open at Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic before transferring to the Stephen Joseph Theatre at Scarborough.
First staged at Hampstead Theatre in 1996, The Memory of Water mixes hilarity and regret in a moving look at families and childhood memory. It won the Olivier Award for best new comedy in 2000 and was voted UK play of the year in 2001.
The play features three grown-up sisters with a history of not getting on: bossy big-sister Teresa, over-achieving Mary and attention-seeking Catherine.
When they gather at the family home on the Yorkshire coast for an awkward reunion, it’s not long before a storm is brewing. Childhood conflicts re-emerge, memories collide and the secrets of their separate lives are finally revealed.
Director Nikolai Foster heads to the New Vic on the back of directing The Dishwashers at Birmingham REP and The Jungle Book at Citizens Theatre, Glasgow.
The cast features Lynn Farleigh who played Miss Haversham in Great Expectations at Watford Palace Theatre and on tour in 2011; Caroline Langrishe who was Cressida in The Handyman at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford in 2012 and Myra in Noël Coward’s Hay Fever at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2009; Paul Opacic who appeared in Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors for English Shakespeare Company; Steven Pinder who was Emmet in the 2010 UK tour of Roy Clarke’s Keeping up Appearances; Mary-Jo Randle whose credits include Monster at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester; and Amanda Ryan who played single mum Judy in the 2011 Birmingham REP tour of Lucy Caldwell’s Notes to Future Self and was also in The Astronaut’s Chair at the Drum Theatre, Plymouth.
The Memory of Water runs at the New Vic from Friday (7 March) until Saturday 22 March and at the Stephen Joseph Theatre from Wednesday 26 March until Saturday 5 April.