Introduction
For sixty years, the Players of St Peter have been performing English medieval drama in London, and are, we believe, unique in offering annual productions from the main English mystery cycles. At the end of November each year we perform a selection of plays from one of the four most complete cycles (York, Chester, Wakefield and "N-Towne" – also known as "The Plaie called Corpus Christi"). Our productions take the Bible story as far as the Nativity, presenting a selection of self-contained scenes within the hour-and-a-half duration of each performance.
At the heart of the group is a core of solid scholarship which, along with six decades' collective experience and insight, enables us to adhere as faithfully as we can judge it to the original production style, capturing something of the early spirit and intent (or so we like to think). Although we use electric lighting and the church's organ (not to mention central heating), the dialogue is very much as it was five hundred years ago, following the original texts and adapted only for length and to clarify some of the more obscure language for present-day audiences.
The Players were founded in 1946 in the church of St Peter-upon-Cornhill and in 1998 returned to the City of London, in St Clement Eastcheap church, after spending ten years in west London. (For international visitors, the "City" here means the London financial district, which is in what was the original London before urban sprawl married it to neighbouring boroughs such as the City of Westminster, to create modern metropolitan London).
To navigate this website, use the menu on the left. The headings deliver the following: Home — this introduction; Office — contact addresses, news about our next production and information on taking part etc; Production (when booking opens) — the Director's notes about the forthcoming production and a link to a booking form; Company — fuller information about the history of the Players and an article by Brian Hunt; Mysteries — a brief discourse on the historical background to the Mystery plays; Venue — information about St Clement Eastcheap, the church in which we perform; Galleries — mainly photographs and cast lists from past productions.
