King William Productions in association with The White Bear present

Walking on Water

Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Written by Paul Minx

Directed by Lolly Susi

White Bear Theatre

8th-28th January 2008

There’s something very special about a high quality performance in a small venue. No doubt the close proximity the audience has to the work is chiefly responsible for the heightened experience. Such perceptions are reassuringly compounded though by the knowledge that not everyone in theatre is chasing the biggest stage and most glamorous venues available.

Whatever the explanation, Walking on Water provides a brilliant example of theatre that leaves you feeling privileged to have witnessed it.

Paul Minx’s tale starts off with a simple premise: Frances Palmer can’t cope with Mama’s Alzheimer affected escapades anymore and calls across the USA to request help from her sister, Betsy. Unwillingly, Betsy leaves her life and daughter in California, returning to the dullness of family life in Indiana for a weekend in order to sort the situation out.

Of course, as with all families, Betsy is not able to pick and choose the level of her involvement and, as the weekend turns into weeks and those weeks turn into months, the family’s torrid history is dug up (along with, in one of Mama’s more morbid exploits, dead family pets).

It might not be the most original of plotlines, the tale of a hidden past catching up with someone is at least as old as the Oedipus myth, but the subtlety and organicity with which Minx’s tale develops is testament to his skill as a writer and provides a perfect launch pad for the talents of the four actresses portraying the Palmer family.

The entire cast brilliantly fulfils their roles, creating a wonderful multi-layered dynamic; they bounce off each other in a superb recreation of family living.

Special mention must be given to Susannah York in her role as Mama. She moves between living in the present and episodes of absenteeism expertly, brilliantly conveying the possibility that she is more in possession of her senses than perhaps her daughters (especially Frances) suspects – at the end of the play we are left wondering how much she deliberately played up her illness in order to get Betsy to return to Indiana.

The manner in which Betsy and Frances talk over and above Mama was reminiscent of the theatrical aside in their assumption that she can’t comprehend what was being said.

Unfortunately though, such communication was all too realistic. How many older people are spoken about in such a way? Too many, and no surer way of devaluing someone’s humanity can be found than to assume that they don’t understand what’s going on around them.

A perceptive commentary on escapism is also provided. Betsy has her make-believe life as fashion designer for Britney and Gwyneth; Henny, her daughter, idealises the oceanographer Sylvia Earle into something that she could never be, and Frances all too readily embraces Californian living when she goes there for a short break. When contrasted with Mama’s uncontrolled fantasies, her desperate desire to sort through the fragments of her memories, we are left wondering at both the basic need for, and futility of, escape when it comes to the immutable past and present of our lives.