Two sporting Lichfield youngsters are swapping their games gear for monks’ habits.
Footballer Martin Playle-de Vries and hockey player Jamie Carter star as novice monks in a new play The Meeting of Ways.
The play, written and directed by David Titley, is based on the life and work of St Chad and tells a story which begins in the 7th Century and ends in the present day.
King Edward VI High School pupil Martin, a striker with Boley Park FC U12s, has been cast as Egbert, who knew Chad in Ireland.
Egbert is a dreamer who hopes to meet angels and sees Chad throw himself to the ground during a thunderstorm.
When he was young Egbert caught the plague and promised God that he would remain an exile from his home country if God saved him. He was about 90 when he died in Iona.
Jamie, aged 12, a pupil at Friary School, plays hockey for Lichfield Hockey Club and for his school.
In The Meeting of Ways, he plays Trumbert who was with Chad in Lichfield. Trumbert almost died of the plague and stayed with Chad until the Saint himself died of the same dreadful disease.
Trumbert later taught the Venerable Bede his scriptures in Jarrow. Bede was the monk who wrote down what we know of Chad’s life in the 730s, some 50 or so years after Chad died.
Both young actors have trodden the boards in other productions. Jamie portrayed a pirate in a Year 6 production at Chadsmead Primary. Martin, who attends Helen O’Grady Drama Academy, has also had various roles in school productions. Two years ago he played Young MacDuff in Shakespeare in the Park’s Macbeth.
Both are excited about appearing in this new production.
Martin said:
“Being a monk is different from anything I have done.”
Jamie is thoroughly enjoying the rehearsals, “particularly the collapsing and fighting!” and finds his character’s name, Trumbert, very amusing.
The Meeting of Ways will be performed at Lichfield Methodist Church hall for three nights from March 24 to March 26 at 7.30pm. Tickets (adults £7, children £5), are on sale at the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum, Market Square, Lichfield. For information call 01543 250286.