Observing a mid-process, rehearsal-room run of “Memory of Water,” I was awestruck by a particular passage of Stephenson’s remarkable writing. In this mysterious scene, Mary appears to be having a conversation with the ghost of Vi, her mother. As is the case with all great writing, nothing is exactly as it seems. But the enigmatic exchange is full of mystery and regret, pain, and longing.

“VI: You invent these versions of me and I don’t recognize myself–

MARY: I’m not listening to you–

VI: I’m proud of you, and you’re ashamed of me–

MARY: I am not–

VI: I hear you say it all the time. I’m not like my mother, I’m not. I’m like my father. Look in the mirror. Why can’t you see it? Everyone else can. Look at the curve of your cheek, look at your hands, the way they move. You’re doing it now. That’s me. I got it from my mother. She got it from her mother. And on it goes, so far back that we don’t know who began it or on what impulse, but we do it, we can’t help it–

MARY: I’ve inherited some of your gestures. So what?

VI: Don’t try and reinvent yourself with me. I know who you are.

MARY: You don’t know anything.

VI: I look at you and I see myself.

MARY: Have you finished?

VI: Never.”

This remarkable passage of dialogue, so dense with the inescapable legacies that our families imprint upon our psyches, is a paradigmatic example of the kind of thematic questions that BackStage hopes to raise. Enjoy the writing. Come see the show.

Rebekah Ward-Hays

Rebekah Ward-Hays will be seen as “Catherine” in BackStage’s upcoming The Memory of Water. Rebekah is a Jeff Award winning actress and an ensemble member of BackStage Theatre Company. She offers the following thoughts about her ongoing relationshp with this character that she will very soon bring to life on our stage.

“First of all, I love Catherine – let’s just get that out in the open! She is one hot mess, and I can relate to more than a couple of her quirks and downfalls. This play is so beautifully written and the relationships are full of honesty and pain and laughter. It’s a true delight to look forward to the words I get to say and finding all the ways I want to say them. There is something special and frightening about being given an opportunity to play a character with whom you truly identify, especially if it is an identity recognized by some your less desirable qualities! I know what it’s like to talk too much when you’re nervous, to monopolize out of the need to be liked, the desperation and fear at the idea of being alone – all of these parts of Catherine are the things I love about her. Which is why, I guess, I come at her with compassion – because I have to find that for myself in my own “disaster” moments. This play makes me think of my sister and my mother – with whom I have close, loving, passionate relationships. It reminds me of how we’ve always done a dance in terms of communicating – someone wins, someone takes sides, someone loses. This play is a waltz of taking turns and cutting in – dynamics at their best. One of my favorite moments thus far involves a scene at the very end of the play where Catherine recalls something their mother used to do – wake them up at night and have ice cream sodas and dance to Nat King Cole. My own mother loves the snow, and one of my favorite memories is the time she woke my sister and I in the middle of the night, then we all went out into the first season’s snow and made snow angels. Those are the times to remember – when everyone danced together.”