Mental illness explored in Bermuda College's festive production A Christmas to Remember

While the festive season can be a time of joy and ­togetherness, the pressures of family feuds, spending lots of money and attending countless functions can send you a little bit over the edge.

The holiday season can often be a trigger for ­mental illness and this is the theme behind a play­­ ­being staged by the Bermuda College next Tuesday evening.

The play, titled Nursery Rhyme Psychosis ‘Holiday Blues’, is featured in the college’s upcoming evening of entertainment A Christmas to Remember.

The event includes a choir performance by the Bermuda College music students as well as carolling with the audience. There will also be a spoken work performance by international Bermudian poet Stephan Johnstone. Guests are invited to bring an ornament for the Tree of Remembrance — each one representing loved ones lost. The tree will be donated to the Sunshine League while money raised from the event will go towards The Salvation Army. Power Girl will be MCing throughout the night.

Nursery Rhyme Psychosis is a play with a comedy twist written by the five students in Bermuda ­College Player’s Drama Club and their teacher Cha’Von Clarke. It centres around four girls who are undergoing group therapy and a male psychologist who is the glue that binds them together. Each female student took a nursery rhyme and adapted it to a modern day situation ­incorporating mental health. Their new rhymes will be read as monologues as part of the production.

Ms Clarke explained: “The assignment started off with the students researching what psychosis is and then researching nursery rhymes. We know that the real meaning of most ­nursery rhymes started off very negatively because they were a way of speaking out politically and socially. The holiday time can be a ­trigger for mental health ­issues so that is why we chose the subject.

“The whole point of the play is to look at the issues we have been going through — especially as women — but these are ­universal issues.”

One of the students, ­Cynarra Phillips, chose Mary Had a Little Lamb as her monologue. She ­adapted the story so that the little lamb did not really exist and was really a kind of imaginary friend to her. Jaqui Lewis chose Baa Baa Black Sheep and her story covered issues of racism and belonging while Ashley Phipps adaptation of Jack and Jill deals with infidelity and insecurity. The other students in the drama club, who were not present, are Shapri Joell and Rashun Evans.

While the play deals with universal problems, the ­students were keen to make their play relevant to Bermuda.

Ms Phipps said: “In my version of Jack and Jill, my husband cheats on me with my neighbour Jill. I am bitter and I have this ­attitude towards men — they are all cheats and all liars and I am insecure. I think it touches home ­because and Bermuda is so small and this kind of thing happens all the time.”

The students enjoyed ­different aspects of writing the play. Ms Phillips said: “I really enjoyed the people and the atmosphere — here everyone is just like a family.”

Ms Lewis added: “Having to learn a nursery rhyme and break it up was one of the most interesting things about doing this play for me.”

While the A Christmas to Remember is a celebration of the festive season, it is also a time to remember loved ones lost which can be done through the Tree of Remembrance.

Ms Clarke said: “I look at Christmas as a time to ­reflect and remember and to start planning the New Year with the information you have gathered over the years. This is an opportunity for people to remember those they have lost.”