The Play
One of Britain's hottest new playwrights has come forth with The Memory of Water, a play about three sisters who return home after the death of their mother. Throughout the play, the sisters struggle over who remembers which events more clearly, only to find that individual memories and experiences can become fuzzy, and that family stories, many times re-told, become free game to be re-shaped and detailed until the story develops so far that it surpasses the memory. Playwright Shelagh Stephenson states that when she started writing the The Memory of Water, it was set at a family birthday party. During the development process, Stephenson lost her mother, and the play took a dramatic turn, shifting from one family event to another. Yet the age old tradition of recollecting family stories, bound by love, laughter, anger, and tears is still the center of this bittersweet, life affirming comedy.

History
The Memory Of Water first opened at the Hampstead Theatre in North London in July of 1996, and went on to a successful run in London's West End from 1998-1999. In 2000, it won The Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. The London cast was as follows: Mary - Samantha Bond; Vi - Julie Legrand; Teresa - Alison Steadman; Catherine - Julia Sawalha; Mike - Patrick Dury; Frank - Mark Lambert. It opened in New York at The Manhattan Theatre Club in 1998. The cast was as follows: Mary - J. Smith Cameron; Vi - Robin Moseley; Teresa - Suzanne Bertish; Catherine - Seana Kofoed; Mike - David Hunt; Frank - Peter McRobbie. Lewis Gilbert, best known for his direction of Alfie, as well as three James Bond films, is slated to direct the upcoming film version of The Memory of Water.

The Playwright
Like the three sisters in The Memory Of Water, Ms. Stephenson hails from the North Country. She was born in Tyneside, England and studied drama at Manchester University, where she spent time studying acting before focusing on writing full-time. Ms. Stephenson has written five original plays for BBC Radio, including Darling Peidi, The Anatomical Venus, and Five Kinds Of Silence, which won the Writer's Guild Award for Best Original Drama. One of Ms. Stephenson's other plays, An Experiment With An Air Pump, which played last year at the Dallas Theater Center, was a joint winner of the 1997 Peggy Ramsay Award. Ms. Stephenson went on to have her radio play, Five Kinds Of Silence, produced on the stage to rave reviews in London during the summer of 2000. Her newest play, Ancient Lights, opened November 29, 2000 at the Hampstead Theatre, which also premiered The Memory Of Water in 1996.