The Memory of Water - Hampstead

[Mark]

Caught this last night.

It hasn't aged well and felt very dated

For those who haven't seen it, it is about three sisters brought back together in their mothers house following her death, and how they remember different things about their childhood growing up what each other remembers. Each of the sisters have their own drama with their respective partners. Good cast, particularly liked Lucy Black as Teresa.

[lonlad]

AWFUL

Night night xxx

(ps the Telegraph and Standard were SPOT ON)

[cavocado]

Oh dear, I'm seeing this in a few days. Hampstead's anniversary revivals don't seem to be going down very well so far.

[jampot]

Sept 13, 2021 14:55:57 GMT cavocado said:

Oh dear, I'm seeing this in a few days. Hampstead's anniversary revivals don't seem to be going down very well so far.

I enjoyed it..can't please em all..

[cherokee]

Does anyone know why the theatre's website is listing two actors as Frank: Henry Everett and Kulvinder Ghir? Are they sharing the role? The latter seems to have performed on Press Night from the reviews I've read.

[cavocado]

I saw this yesterday and enjoyed it. It wasn't the best play I've seen recently, but I felt it has aged pretty well and was a good choice for a revival. It was funny and poignant and pretty insightful about mother/daughter/sister relationships and how family dynamics from childhood play out in adulthood, and an interesting theme about the unreliability of memory. Some similar themes to The Lodger, which I saw a few days ago, but I felt this one was a better play. Good cast too. Lots of laughter from the audience, so I assume I wasn't alone in enjoying it. Much of it felt familiar to me as a daughter and sister. I'd give it three and a half stars.

cherokee  I saw Henry Everett (who was very good). Looking at the theatre's website, it lists him from 15 September, so perhaps Kulvinder Ghir had to pull out for some reason? I don't remember seeing two Franks listed when I booked. 

[joem]

Yes, just saw this and it was much better than I expected from reading earlier comments. Oh sure, it's not going to be on my list of favourite ever plays but it is a serviceable play with some hit and miss black humour, a passable story about three sisters a mother and their relationship(s). If anything the story gets a bit busy and then sort of tails off.....BUT it is reasonably entertaining and it has some things to say about our perceptions of memory and about families and about relationships so it's very unfair to write it off as a turkey.

I sometimes hear or read about plays being dated but we never have a problem with Shakespeare do we, forsooth? Plays with dated references are sometimes automatically tagged as dated rather than considering the essence of the work and only if this truly creaks is it right to call a play dated. Not because there's a Demis Roussos reference or characters are having some Black Forest gateau or whatever. I did not find the mores and values of this play dated.

Don't know what happened to Kulvinder Ghir (hope he is well) but if David Everett came in at such short notice he has to be commended for fitting in so well with the rest of the cast.

[Dave B]

Saw the matinee today. Enjoyed it, I'd echo comments about it being better than expected after earlier posts.

Cast were all really good and the 2.5 hours flew by, I thought they all did a great job and this helped throughout when the story does go a bit all over the place.

[dlevi]

I saw this over the weekend and thought: why is this play so well-regarded. It seemed to be very much in the vein of Beth Henley's Cries of the Heart but without ...heart. I found all the sisters to be unsympathetic and each in their own way self-destructive. The only character for whom I felt genuine sympathy was the part played by Adam James - and I'm sure that couldn't have been Ms Stephenson's intention. The only time I felt that the characters and the play and the performances came together was trying on the mother's dresses. Other than that? meh.

[mkb]

Coming out of the final performance of this show tonight, it's difficult to take some of the earlier comments seriously. It's as if we've seen an entirely different play.

The writing spoke directly to me and felt timeless, as you'd expect when dissecting the human condition. Our memories are what make us. Without them, we are nothing. But are they ever completely lost?

The characters are beautifully written and perfectly performed. I loved it. I laughed a lot and was moved to tears. So glad I caught this revival, having never seen it before.

Audience mostly masked, and ovation at the curtain call.

Five stars.

Act 1: 19:34-20:30
Act 2: 20:48-21:35
Act 3: 21:36-22:03