Tragi-comedy recalls ghosts of Christmas past

Yvette Parsons in Silent Night. Photo / Jonathan Brugh.

Dr Paul Owen, a geriatrician and Auckland City Hospital's clinical director of older people's health, doesn't get the opportunity to see much theatre, but he made time to go to Yvette Parsons' one-woman show Silent Night.

As an actor, Parsons, with her porcelain skin, striking black curls and green eyes, is recognised for appearances in The House of Bernarda Alba, Entertaining Mr Sloane and Tom Sainsbury's Dance Troupe Supreme.

But Parsons also has a day job as a medical clerk. This took her to Dr Owen's department. When he heard of her other life and Silent Night, the show she wrote about an elderly woman preparing for Christmas, Dr Owen accepted an invitation to see a performance. He was spellbound.

"Yvette did phenomenally well to add decades on to portray an elderly woman. All the speech intonations were just right, the sighs and the pauses, and her movements were spot on. It was fantastic."

That Parsons slipped into character so aptly is due to talent and training but also childhood memories. Her parents, Loma Clark and Maurice Parsons, ran a Herne Bay rest home, where she lived as a small child. Parsons remembers the elderly residents well.

"I was intrigued by the way they spoke and the subjects they would talk about. Some would change tack midway through a sentence and that always interested me," she recalls. "At Christmas, my sisters and I would sing carols, make presents and paint the elderly ladies' fingernails."

Parsons wrote Silent Night in 2007-08, encouraged by award-winning playwright and friend Tom Sainsbury. It is set on Christmas Day as Irene McMunn (Parsons) prepares for the arrival of guests.

As she bakes and shows off her flair for unusual festive decorating, Irene remembers stories from her past: the Tangiwai disaster and the effect it had on her and her family, her courtship and marriage to late husband Len and her relationship with daughter Elaine.

She also shares a secret with the audience: her special ability to receive messages from God, which are becoming more regular and popping up everywhere - like the vision of the Virgin Mary in her Tip Top toast.

Parsons describes the piece as a "tragi-comedy" but it does have a poignant ring of truth.

Her uncle, Trevor Clark, and six of his close childhood friends died in the Tangiwai rail disaster on Christmas Eve, 1953. He was just 21.

While Parsons was not born until many years later, she recalls Christmas as a time when Trevor was talked about and remembered so Silent Night is dedicated to him.

Auckland Theatre Company picked Silent Night for one of its monthly play readings and later as one of three works featured in the company's 2008 Next Stage festival of new New Zealand plays.

At the time, Parsons said it was her dream to further develop the script and tour the production.

Her wish now comes true as she prepares for the premiere production at the Musgrove Studio.

Fellow actor Stephen Papps produces and directs the piece, which he first saw in the Next Stage.

Papps was touched by the play, which made him laugh and cry in equal measure.

The show has given Parsons an excuse to indulge a favourite pastime of collecting knick-knacks.

She and Papps say the show is aimed at all age groups.

"I think it raises awareness of people being on their own on Christmas Day and the need to take time to consider them and perhaps to do something to make it a special time for them," she says.

Performance

What: Silent Night

Where and when: Musgrove Studio, December 13-18