cultural_philistine
HAL_9000Review of The Memory of Water (Whoosh Productions) and Hooters
September 17th 2007 23:12
The Memory of Water, by Shelagh Stephenson, has just finished its run at Parramatta, and is returning to the Darlinghurst Theatre for one week only.
Cultural_philistine spoke to a reluctant Mr_Archives and to HAL_9000 (just a little bit -- apologies for ignoring you for most of the conversation!) about their theatre and dining experience.
So Mr_Archives, do you like the food at Hooters?
No, it was kind of heavy and bland. [See HAL's review below.]
Did you like the special effects in the play?
No, I thought it was a bit... I don't know.... It was snowing inside the house, so I don't know if that was...
You didn't think it was expressive, the snowing inside the house?
It just seemed a little cheesy with the music at the same time.
HAL_9000, what the hell is this play about?
Well, three daughters reflecting on their mother's death.
What has the title got to do with anything?
The whole experiment with the water and medicine...
I personally couldn't follow the description of the experiment. Mr_Archives, could you explain?
Yeah, the water experiment was a group of French scientists who set out to test the theory of homeopathy, which is that you can dilute substances in water to... Using miniscule doses, that would still have an effect on the human body because of the resonating power of water. And the French lab discovered initially that there was something to this, but this was subsequently disproved.
The whole experiment was rubbish?
It was bollocks.
In what sense does water in that experiment have a memory?
You would add the molecules to some water initially, and then you'd add more water until it was totally diluted, until it was not there really because you'd add so much water to parts of active substance, and so it had to actually be the water itself that was taking on something of the original substance.
And what did that have to do with the play?
[Laughs.]
Let me press the point. So you're saying you couldn't see a connection with the play?
It was because there's some... things that get passed down from person to person without there being a particular reason... they just simply flow through in the blood, and the mother has the same gestures as the daughter and that sort of thing. Without any kind of deliberate... And though you try to avoid replicating your parents you really end up living the same sorts of lives and so on.
You're more influenced by your parents than you think. That's the take-home message?
Yeah. WOW.
What exactly was the play saying about memory, if anything?
Um, that it is malleable and that it's hard to define. People make their own stories...
So who are you when your memory is taken away?
You're... islands... in a black sea... sometimes you get washed up on shore...
Did the play make you laugh?
Oh yeah, I laughed at times.
You didn't find it that funny?
It was not really... There were a lot of old people in the theatre and most of them were laughing much more than us... A different demographic.
What did you make of the set?
It was a bit cheap. Why were the black boxes under the coffin? That was cheap.
What was going on with the walls? What was happening there?
I couldn't work out what the wallpaper was about, but I think it was showing decay and the passage of time and the house was going to be washed away and that was why it was all partially damaged -- that was my impression.
HAL_9000, did you think the married lover (Drayton Morley) was a pompous ass?
Absolutely.
Did you like his shivering?
Actually, I thought that was good, yeah. I did believe he was cold.
Did it go on for far too long?
Well, I had hypothermia for a week once, so no.
Did you think he was a passable actor?
He played the same note continously.
Did you find that a problem with the play generally, that they played the same note?
A fraction, yeah.
You didn't find that the sisters just blew up at each other every time they were in the same room?
Well sisters generally do that.
Does that reflect your own experience?
[Laughs.]
I'll take that as a yes. Mr_Archives, what did you make of the acting?
It was okay. It wasn't amazing. I liked the Teresa woman [Sandra Eldridge], I thought she was quite good, and the main woman [Catherine Moore] was quite good.
Were the characters stereotyped?
Yeah, they were a bit stereotyped, yeah.
Were the accents hard to understand?
Um, no, no, they weren't hard to understand.
What were they supposed to be accents of?
Some kind of... mid-England... there was a kind of Yorkshire with the Frank character... but it was a kind of mid-England sort of accent. [It's supposed to be set in a Yorkshire seaside town, so hats off to the actors for replicating it, and to Mr_Archives for recognising it.]
Did you find that the play dragged?
No, I didn't think it dragged.
At what point were you bored?
I drifted off at moments... yeah... at moments... But I kept being drawn back in at different moments too. So I wouldn't say I was really bored, but I drifted off a little bit.
Did you find they pulled rabbits out of a hat to keep you interested?
Yeah... and there was a little bit of undressing as well.
[HAL:] When that guy comes on stage with a towel and he actually had to get dressed on stage. I thought that was humorous.
[Mr_Archives:] It got your attention, because it was such a small towel. And the shirt was buttoned up the whole way. Have you ever done that? When he put on the shirt he didn't button it -- it was already buttoned. I thought that was really weird.
Mr_Archives, were you satisfied with the ending?
Yeah, apart from the music at the end, I was satisfied... but it seemed it was about three characters, but there was only one character that they properly developed... so it just seemed to resolve for one character but not for the rest.
HAL, would you watch it again?
Um, no. It is a tough play to see twice. But I thought the sister who was the martyr [Catherine Moore] was probably the best actor, so I'd be happy to see her again.
Did you find there was a wearying lack of plot?
They could have developed some of the characters a bit more. For example, they were sort of talking about the younger daughter and how, you know, she really was a giving person but no one understood her. I really expected them to develop that and they didn't, so I was disappointed there.
Mr_Archives, were you impressed with the play?
Impressed with the play... At some moments I thought the script was quite elegant... Those moments escape me at the moment, but at points I was impressed with the writing of the play, yeah.
Was it a higher quality production than you were expecting?
No, it was kind of an average quality production.
Was it worth seeing?
Of course, everything's worth seeing, isn't it? I don't know... Yeah, it was worth seeing.
Would you rather have watched "Transformers"?
Yes.
So it was a waste of two hours?
Well... you see some family dynamics between siblings, that's always good.
Did you relate to it?
No, because it was kind of a female play. The males were both weak characters, so no, I didn't relate personally.
Was there anything you wanted to say about the play that we haven't covered?
I didn't want to say anything to start with.
HAL, what about you?
I thought there were some humorous moments... I thought it was funny... But I didn't like the mother's acting in the second act [Wendy Strehlow]. In the last scene the mother was on stage, I thought that was flat.
What were the most memorable moments?
I suppose the climax is when the main character finds out her son is dead. Also... the dress scene when they're all lying on the bed laughing is good. And, well, when Teresa is drunk and starts talking that's quite memorable too.
Most memorable moments, Mr_Archives?
When the mum was talking about Alzheimer's. Otherwise I go along with HAL.
The Whoosh Productions production of The Memory of Water was playing at Riverside Theatres, Parramatta, from Tuesday 11 to Saturday 15 September 2007.
It will be at Darlinghurst Theatre from Tuesday 18 till Saturday 22 September.
The play won the Lawrence Olivier Award for best new comedy in 2000, and was voted UK "play of the year" (don't know by whom) in 2001.
Director -- Kim Hardwick
Designer -- Jo Briscoe
Lighting designer -- Martin Kinnane
Featuring (fingers crossed that I've assigned the names the right way): --
Andrew Crowley as "Frank", Teresa's husband
Sandra Eldridge as "Teresa"
Catherine Moore as "Mary"
Drayton Morley as "Mike", Mary's lover
Mel Stewart as "Catherine"
Wendy Strehlow as "Vi", the mother
HAL_9000 comments on Hooters:
Hooters Family Restaurant does, surprisingly, cater for families, despite its predominantly male clientele. The staff are friendly, with the famous Hooters girls looking barely older than nineteen. All the girls are noticeably slim, an essential requirement obviously for anyone wanting to fit into those 80s-style orange shorts with skin-brown tights and white socks. At 7.15pm customers are treated to a dance routine. One wonders how they find the time in between taking orders. One of my male companions attempted to make eye contact with a Hooters girl in order to settle the bill, but she ignored him, thinking he was just having a perv. The food itself is all-American fare -- fried chicken, hamburgers, including such famous dishes as key lime pie. Admittedly the service is fast and efficient, compensating for the classy plastic plates and paper-towel holders on every table. This fine eating establishment was the vision of an American businessman in the 80s and it does tend to show. The plethora of television sets suspended from the ceilings displaying sport and news also tend to indicate a male touch. Despite this, I found the experience so amusingly un-PC that I could barely keep a straight face every time a sweet young Hooters girl came to check whether we were all right. I wonder how many of these girls list Hooters on their CV.
Cultural_philistine spoke to a reluctant Mr_Archives and to HAL_9000 (just a little bit -- apologies for ignoring you for most of the conversation!) about their theatre and dining experience.
~~~
So Mr_Archives, do you like the food at Hooters?
No, it was kind of heavy and bland. [See HAL's review below.]
Did you like the special effects in the play?
No, I thought it was a bit... I don't know.... It was snowing inside the house, so I don't know if that was...
You didn't think it was expressive, the snowing inside the house?
It just seemed a little cheesy with the music at the same time.
HAL_9000, what the hell is this play about?
Well, three daughters reflecting on their mother's death.
What has the title got to do with anything?
The whole experiment with the water and medicine...
I personally couldn't follow the description of the experiment. Mr_Archives, could you explain?
Yeah, the water experiment was a group of French scientists who set out to test the theory of homeopathy, which is that you can dilute substances in water to... Using miniscule doses, that would still have an effect on the human body because of the resonating power of water. And the French lab discovered initially that there was something to this, but this was subsequently disproved.
The whole experiment was rubbish?
It was bollocks.
In what sense does water in that experiment have a memory?
You would add the molecules to some water initially, and then you'd add more water until it was totally diluted, until it was not there really because you'd add so much water to parts of active substance, and so it had to actually be the water itself that was taking on something of the original substance.
And what did that have to do with the play?
[Laughs.]
Let me press the point. So you're saying you couldn't see a connection with the play?
It was because there's some... things that get passed down from person to person without there being a particular reason... they just simply flow through in the blood, and the mother has the same gestures as the daughter and that sort of thing. Without any kind of deliberate... And though you try to avoid replicating your parents you really end up living the same sorts of lives and so on.
You're more influenced by your parents than you think. That's the take-home message?
Yeah. WOW.
What exactly was the play saying about memory, if anything?
Um, that it is malleable and that it's hard to define. People make their own stories...
So who are you when your memory is taken away?
You're... islands... in a black sea... sometimes you get washed up on shore...
Did the play make you laugh?
Oh yeah, I laughed at times.
You didn't find it that funny?
It was not really... There were a lot of old people in the theatre and most of them were laughing much more than us... A different demographic.
What did you make of the set?
It was a bit cheap. Why were the black boxes under the coffin? That was cheap.
What was going on with the walls? What was happening there?
I couldn't work out what the wallpaper was about, but I think it was showing decay and the passage of time and the house was going to be washed away and that was why it was all partially damaged -- that was my impression.
HAL_9000, did you think the married lover (Drayton Morley) was a pompous ass?
Absolutely.
Did you like his shivering?
Actually, I thought that was good, yeah. I did believe he was cold.
Did it go on for far too long?
Well, I had hypothermia for a week once, so no.
Did you think he was a passable actor?
He played the same note continously.
Did you find that a problem with the play generally, that they played the same note?
A fraction, yeah.
You didn't find that the sisters just blew up at each other every time they were in the same room?
Well sisters generally do that.
Does that reflect your own experience?
[Laughs.]
I'll take that as a yes. Mr_Archives, what did you make of the acting?
It was okay. It wasn't amazing. I liked the Teresa woman [Sandra Eldridge], I thought she was quite good, and the main woman [Catherine Moore] was quite good.
Were the characters stereotyped?
Yeah, they were a bit stereotyped, yeah.
Were the accents hard to understand?
Um, no, no, they weren't hard to understand.
What were they supposed to be accents of?
Some kind of... mid-England... there was a kind of Yorkshire with the Frank character... but it was a kind of mid-England sort of accent. [It's supposed to be set in a Yorkshire seaside town, so hats off to the actors for replicating it, and to Mr_Archives for recognising it.]
Did you find that the play dragged?
No, I didn't think it dragged.
At what point were you bored?
I drifted off at moments... yeah... at moments... But I kept being drawn back in at different moments too. So I wouldn't say I was really bored, but I drifted off a little bit.
Did you find they pulled rabbits out of a hat to keep you interested?
Yeah... and there was a little bit of undressing as well.
[HAL:] When that guy comes on stage with a towel and he actually had to get dressed on stage. I thought that was humorous.
[Mr_Archives:] It got your attention, because it was such a small towel. And the shirt was buttoned up the whole way. Have you ever done that? When he put on the shirt he didn't button it -- it was already buttoned. I thought that was really weird.
Mr_Archives, were you satisfied with the ending?
Yeah, apart from the music at the end, I was satisfied... but it seemed it was about three characters, but there was only one character that they properly developed... so it just seemed to resolve for one character but not for the rest.
HAL, would you watch it again?
Um, no. It is a tough play to see twice. But I thought the sister who was the martyr [Catherine Moore] was probably the best actor, so I'd be happy to see her again.
Did you find there was a wearying lack of plot?
They could have developed some of the characters a bit more. For example, they were sort of talking about the younger daughter and how, you know, she really was a giving person but no one understood her. I really expected them to develop that and they didn't, so I was disappointed there.
Mr_Archives, were you impressed with the play?
Impressed with the play... At some moments I thought the script was quite elegant... Those moments escape me at the moment, but at points I was impressed with the writing of the play, yeah.
Was it a higher quality production than you were expecting?
No, it was kind of an average quality production.
Was it worth seeing?
Of course, everything's worth seeing, isn't it? I don't know... Yeah, it was worth seeing.
Would you rather have watched "Transformers"?
Yes.
So it was a waste of two hours?
Well... you see some family dynamics between siblings, that's always good.
Did you relate to it?
No, because it was kind of a female play. The males were both weak characters, so no, I didn't relate personally.
Was there anything you wanted to say about the play that we haven't covered?
I didn't want to say anything to start with.
HAL, what about you?
I thought there were some humorous moments... I thought it was funny... But I didn't like the mother's acting in the second act [Wendy Strehlow]. In the last scene the mother was on stage, I thought that was flat.
What were the most memorable moments?
I suppose the climax is when the main character finds out her son is dead. Also... the dress scene when they're all lying on the bed laughing is good. And, well, when Teresa is drunk and starts talking that's quite memorable too.
Most memorable moments, Mr_Archives?
When the mum was talking about Alzheimer's. Otherwise I go along with HAL.
~~~
The Whoosh Productions production of The Memory of Water was playing at Riverside Theatres, Parramatta, from Tuesday 11 to Saturday 15 September 2007.
It will be at Darlinghurst Theatre from Tuesday 18 till Saturday 22 September.
The play won the Lawrence Olivier Award for best new comedy in 2000, and was voted UK "play of the year" (don't know by whom) in 2001.
~~~
Director -- Kim Hardwick
Designer -- Jo Briscoe
Lighting designer -- Martin Kinnane
Featuring (fingers crossed that I've assigned the names the right way): --
Andrew Crowley as "Frank", Teresa's husband
Sandra Eldridge as "Teresa"
Catherine Moore as "Mary"
Drayton Morley as "Mike", Mary's lover
Mel Stewart as "Catherine"
Wendy Strehlow as "Vi", the mother
~~~
HAL_9000 comments on Hooters:
"Delightfully tacky yet unrefined", whatever that means, says one of the Hoooters' slogans
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