Grand Theatre Gala Re-opening

The Memory of Water
by Shelagh Stephenson

Performed by Lancaster Footlights
Saturday 18 October

reviewed by

Refurbishment and restoration
As the scaffolding finally came down, Lancaster's eighteenth-century Grand Theatre celebrated the completion of its recent refurbishment on Saturday 18 October with a Gala Evening on the final night of Lancaster Footlights' production of The Memory of Water by the internationally-acclaimed northern writer, Shelagh Stephenson.

With evening dress, canapés and wine – the delicious and underrated Spanish Cava, no less - the indulgence of the Gala evening was a pleasant, and different, theatrical experience. It was also an appropriate way to mark the fact that the thick end of £100,000 has been spent ensuring that the Grade 1 listed building has been safeguarded for at least another while yet.

And so into the impressive auditorium which, incidentally, has fine acoustics for the spoken voice (I have not heard live music there yet). Stephenson's play is an acutely wry observation of the fragility of family relationships in the aftermath of a death, and how we change our perspectives on a loved one at their demise.

Emotions and memories challenged
So often we (usually wrongly) beatify them, but The Memory of Water proposes that "All memories are false'. When dementia is in the overall picture that can certainly be true, and this difficult, sometimes taboo topic is accurately observed and sensitively presented. After earlier BBC successes with radio plays, The Memory of Water of 1996 was the author's first stage play which went on to win an Olivier Award in 2000. Stephenson has been premiered at the National Theatre, and The Memory of Water has been seen in Poland. Filmed on the Isle of Man last year, it opens next February in Paris.

Whilst I would describe the play as neither traditional psychological thriller nor simple domestic drama, the powerful story engages with an issue that is more commonplace than is often acknowledged. The tension develops as emotions, along with the unexpected, take over and reduce the characters and their partners, present or otherwise, to a powerful and minimal raw emotional nakedness.

Ginny Scott's competent direction met the demands of the piece, and the cast maintained a lively and varied pace - which sometimes jerked from distraught grief to uncontrolled hysteria - throughout. Only occasionally did I feel a greater range of timbre, placing and tempo were needed.

Lighting and a suitably angular set provided the right visual contexts for the action, which ended in a fine dénouement which, like dealing with relationships clouded by dementia, was far from cathartic in the classical sense.

So far, so good …but
This then was a worthwhile evening – restoration celebrated, a good piece well executed by a local group in a fine building. But I was concerned, however, that the celebrants that night seemed largely involved with the Footlights, the group that owns the Theatre.

There were none of the usual dignitaries, such as local councillors or other press, as far as I know, nor any other representative of the wider local community. The average age of the audience also seemed high. Where were the younger people on whose support the future of any theatre in the twenty-first century solely relies?

… much future potential
But I am heartened that the Grand's programme of events for the rest of the year contains events to attract a younger audience. I understand there are links with the Lancaster-based Drama Factory, which provides training and courses in theatre for young and old. I hope that there will be further moves next year to widen the range of the house's productions so as to attract an even greater cross-section of the local community. On a personal note, I cannot wait to hear a concert of eighteenth-century music, perhaps with choir, in such a worthy and delightful setting. A Mozart opera perhaps – the composer was entering his most creative phase in Vienna in the year the theatre was built.

The Grand Theatre is one of the City's architectural jewels. I earnestly hope that it will fulfil – or perhaps regain – a key role as a venue for diverse (and multi-media?) arts events that will appeal to a broad-based audience that is, actually out there and just waiting to be entertained, educated and – excited!

Copyright © 21 October 2003 Michael Nunn