The Players of St Peter
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and the official menu to the alternative site.
 
The Players of St Peter are an amateur drama group who have been performing medieval mystery plays in London for seventy years.
Put in your diary the following dates for our next production
 
2024 Dec 05, Thu19:30
2024 Dec 06, Fri19:30
2024 Dec 07, Sat15:00 and 18:30
in the church of St Saviour - Hampstead,
Eton Road, Chalk Farm, London, NW3 4SU
 
See map below.
Watch this space for details of how to book.
The selection of plays will be the same at each performance.


Larger map   |   Different map
Production history

 
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Olive as Sibyl the Sage
Olive M. Stubbs
who has adapted and directed all our productions from 1986 to 2015. She joined the Players in 1977 when she played Mary.
She usually gives herself a small part in each production - seen here in 2003, giving out director’s notes, after rehearsing the role of Sibyl in the Chester Wrights' play of the Salutation and Birth.
. This symbol indicates items which are actually on this site.
Texts available on the Web
CycleOriginalModernis/zed
Chester Maine
n-Town
Corpus Christi
Hegge
Maine Toronto
This site - a few of the plays
Wakefield
Towneley
Michigan
Kindle-ready versions
Virginia *
Actual scripts of some of our 2016 prod­uction
York Michigan
Rochester, NY
Virginia *
Toronto
Scripts of our 2017 prod­uction
All four of the above
plus fragments
Maine
Coventry Archive.org
The Castle of Perseverance eBooksRead
Toronto

* - links to University of Virginia are currently broken
    Trailers and Trailers
The author of the n-Town plays provided what in cinematic terms we would now call a trailer.  It plods through from:
In the first pageant we think to play
How God did make through his own might
Heaven so clear upon the first day …
In the second pageant, by God’s might,
We think to show and play the scene
In the other six days, by open sight,
What thing was wrought. …
right through to:
Then followeth next, surely,
Of Whitsuntide, that solemn feast,
Which pageant shall be nine and thirty. …
The fortieth pageant shall be the last,
And Doomsday that pageant shall be called
Who sees that pageant might be aghast
To grieve his Lord God never at all. …
and finishing with:
On Sunday next, if that we may,
At six of the bell we begin our play
In N-town; [hence the name] wherefore we pray
That God now be your speed.
(Substitute actual date, time and location when performing.)  The original manuscript has a time of six but when it says six it means 6am!  They had to start that early if they were going to perform all the plays in a day.  We know that in some cities the plays were performed from the back of wagons or pageants (the other sort of trailer) - one play per wagon.
 
Normally I support the Any Browser Campaign but for Dennis G. Jerz’s York Corpus Christi Pageant Simulator I am prepared to make an exception - I had to borrow my son’s Apple Mac to see it properly.
 
The simulator works out where each wagon would be minute by minute during the course of Corpus Christi Day.  Performing 48 plays at 16 stations using Toronto running times takes 22 hours - which would leave them playing by candle-light till four of the bell.  To use Olive Stubbs’s phrase, theses have been written on this subject and Dennis Jerz discusses them on this page.
 
Dennis Jerz says he has never been to York but then if you are seeing the plays at 500 years distance what difference does 3000 miles make?
 
Quite an extensive web site worth exploring lies beyond the Simulator.  Its Site Map double-counts a lot of pages but it is still a decent-sized site.  And just to confuse you, there are two different pages both entitled A Christ Taken Prisoner.
 
The site includes a Glossary which may be useful especially for those who approach the plays from a dramatic rather than a religious background.  One page about a certain famous conical bra is there for comparison with the holy relics of earlier times.  (And why not - it was worn by a Madonna with interesting religious leanings.)
 
I won't ask the props department to do the fancy crowns but the exposed breast seems to be canonical.
My Positano pic
Somewhere between Salerno and Amalfi


Chiesa di San Domenico, Cesena
SM Angolazione
S. Maria delle Grazie, Avellino
Silvia
Silvia Miotti in 2008
 
S. Maria delle Grazie, Mazzarà S. Andrea (ME), Sicilia - image too poor even by my standards.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Free Hit Counters Any Browser!(At least for the .pages it is.)  .
 
 

The Players offstage

In this group before you can act on the stage, you have to mantle it.  And when it would be all over for most groups, you have to dismantle it.

Beardyman
Someone has developed a strange obsession about Peter Evans, one of the Players. See my page and the blog.

On the web
There is a least one member of the group who says "I have never seen the web"! But a growing number do have presences there. This list is a wiki page so if you are not on it, add yourself!

Obituary
Sadly, four of our members died during 2006:


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Nothing worth looking at below here.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Roger Haworth’s ego trip
(I told you there was nothing worth looking at.)
Lots of links to Simon’s site


.Roger’s home page
 
   


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