Memory forms one of the key motifs in the play, with the characters’ fraught relationship with memory changing over the course of the action. At the beginning of the play, Dan and Natalie regard memory as a persistent problem for Diana: She is so consumed by memories of Gabe’s death that the trauma triggers episodes of her mental illness. The appearance of the teenaged Gabe represents a memory that has taken on a life of its own, impacting Diana’s day-to-day life and relationships with others.

After her electroconvulsive therapy, Diana temporarily loses all of her memories. At first, Dan, Natalie, and Doctor Madden regard this loss as a boon for Diana, as her lack of memory also leads to a lack of upsetting emotion. However, they quickly discover that a lack of memory does not mean successfully erasing or neutering the past: Despite Dan’s attempts to help Diana selectively recover only happy memories, her inner sense of sadness drives her to recover her lost memories of Gabe. When she remembers Gabe, she feels her grief in full again, but this time memory serves as an aid instead of a burden—in realizing that no treatment regimen has successfully addressed the root causes of her issues, Diana feels empowered to try a new approach. 

In doing so, she also helps Dan find the courage to face his own unsettling memories, with Dan deciding at the play’s end that he, too, must confront the past instead of trying to dodge it. Memory thus serves as a complicated presence in the play, as an element that can cause suffering but which also helps form part of the essence of who an individual is and what they have experienced.