Clavering Players

For the first time in Clavering Players 52 year history they will be performing in Saffron Walden Town Hall.

The Memory of Water by Shelagh Stephenson will be performed on Friday 8th June at 8.00 p.m.; Saturday 9th June at 3.00 p.m. and 8.00 p.m.; and Sunday 10th June at 5.00 p.m. Tickets cost £7 from Saffron Walden Tourist Information Centre.

The Memory of Water was winner of the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2000, and starred Alison Steadman, Samantha Bond and Julia Sawalha. The story centres around three sisters; Teresa, Mary and Catherine, who come together before their mother’s funeral. As the three women interact after years of separation, they recollect family stories and many of their hidden secrets emerge. But each has her own memories of their childhood and the differences in how they remember the past create conflict, which is by turns, angry, desperate, poignant and wildly funny.

The unusual title derives from a scientific observation that water may have a form of memory in that, when a curative element is added to it and then removed, the water retains healing properties although there is no longer any trace of the drug itself. You can dilute and dilute and dilute, but the pertinent thing remains. It’s unseen, undetectable, untraceable, but it still exerts influence. In the same manner, the sisters finally accept that the influence Vi exerts in her daughters’ lives will outlast her physical existence by far: ‘she goes through us like wine through water. Whether we like it or not. Nothing ends entirely’.

The Memory of Water is a beautifully written play which promises an evening full of love, laughter and tears.

The cast:
Judy Curry (Vi);
Jennifer Scott-Reid (Teresa);
Evie Taylor (Mary);
Natascha Scott-Reid (Catherine);
David Smithet (Mike)
Adam Todd (Frank).

Directed by:
Sandra King and Jennifer Scott-Reid

Tickets available from the Saffron Walden Tourist Information Centre (01799 524002)