Laya and Lara aka Mandy and Rachelle

 

An insight into the characters of Laya and Lara who are both characters in the 2016 production of Jesus Christ Superstar in Lincoln Cathedral.

My name is Laya and I live in a village just outside Jerusalem in about 30AD.

My sister Lara and I have just escaped from the evil man our father sold us to when our mother died. Our father really couldn’t cope with us so felt he had not option but to sell us as slaves; and I suppose he also wanted to make himself some money once our mother had gone.

I really want my sister and I to be free so that we can make better lives for ourselves but it’s really tough and not always easy to see a way out.  At least we have now managed to escape from the man who has enslaved us for years. We have only ever known a life of being used and abused by men; so having had the experience recently of listening to Jesus we now know that we both want more for ourselves from this life. Our current life is really not what we want; we are better than this, but prostitution is all we have known for several years and we’re not sure how to get out of the life we have into a new one; maybe this Jesus can help us?

Lara and I had a good life before our mother died and know that we want that kind of life again; especially after meeting Jesus and listening to him; we want to be better people.

We both hope our better life will come soon; we will keep trying as best we can to carve out that new life we so desperately want, as it would be a shame for us to give up now we’ve taken the first step by escaping.

Jesus has really influenced us both and as I am the older sister I feel I owe it to my younger sibling to make these changes in our lives.

I’m really worried if things don’t change for us, but If we need to we will continue in prostitution until we get another opportunity to move on. In the meantime we really must  keep away from the man who bought us and lead us to this terrible life.

Our mother loved us very much and I think she would be really upset with our father for selling us. We will need to get over the negative attitude and behaviours of the other Jews in our city as they do not understand that we have to do what we do in order to get where we want to. We do not care about them, just for each other; we need to do this work to survive.

Written by Mandy Pettit and Rachelle Hoy

• Posted in: Characters 2016
• Tagged: cathedral, Characters, community, Jerusalem, Jesus, Jesus Christ Superstar, Lincoln, Passover, prostitution, slave, Temple