Ilse Klink on her role as a Harley-riding mother in-law on A Marry Little Christmas

“I wish I was as brave as she is and as honest as she is you know. So I do see a little bit of myself in her you know,” said veteran actress Ilse Klink.

The former Isidingo actress is part of The Market Theatre’s festive season play, A Marry Little Christmas which is a story about family, love, misunderstandings, and the topsy-turvy nature of following cultural practices.

45 year-old Arnold Hartmann plans to propose to Natalie Cloete before hosting the perfect ‘traditional’ Christmas lunch to unify his and her family. But a nightmare has caused him to oversleep, and before he can build up the courage to pop the question, the two families have started to arrive. Klink plays the character of Patricia Cloete, who is the mother of the bride.

“She [is] quite an open verbose, kind of doesn’t limit herself to who other people think she should be. She drives a Harley motorbike and she’s an astrologer and an accountant and a hugger,” Klink said of her character.

“And she’s quite exuberant, as it were. Nothing holds her back. So she’s quite a fun character to play. And I really love doing theatre and I would say that would be my huge attraction to the role itself as well. And she’s really funny too.”

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Resonance

The play is written by Greg Homann and directed by Charmaine Weir-Smith.  “This play has been a few years in the making, with the initial idea for it dating back to an animated festive lunch with my own family. Although not based directly on my family, the roots of it are deeply connected to my own family’s dynamics and antics,” said Homann.

Klink believes audiences will resonate with the characters on the story because they are all unique.

“So all the characters are very, very different from each other and everyone brings their own personality and their own little story to this one Christmas story. And I think that’s where the comedy lies and the fun of the story is,” the actress said.

“It’s multigenerational as well. You have the younger people as opposed to the older people, older traditions as opposed to younger traditions. One of the characters says that they’re having a Muslim-Jew-gay, just everybody together kind of Christmas, the people that don’t belong.”

Timing and precision are important in comedy, but more so in theatre where you have a live audience that gives instant reaction to every motion on stage.

“The script has been written really well. You know what I mean? And therein lies the essence of the comedy. We have such a wonderful cast of people who are naturally, you know, there are technical aspects, but they are people that can really bring themselves into it and people who have got the experience of comedy. But if you do what is written on the page, I think that’s a huge part,” said Klink.

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