JOHN DEMPSTER: Sleeping Beauty's Prince Charming reveals what faith means to him every day
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When I met Prince Callum of Culloden in the restaurant at Eden Court Theatre he has just come from giving Princess Beauty the kiss that awakens in a rehearsal of the panto, Sleeping Beauty.
Ben McGarvey, who plays the Prince, is full of energy and life, and seems 100 per cent committed to music and theatre.
He describes not only the challenges of working in the arts sector, but also the rewards – the satisfaction of a job well done as part of a team, a story well told.
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He loves gigs like the panto: “I just go in and have fun and feel that joy.”
Ben also talks about his commitment to God.
As a child in Belfast he was encouraged (but never forced) to go to church, and as a teenager came to acknowledge the importance of Christian faith.
After his graduation from the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow, there came “a big turning-point.”
He realised that though God was wholly committed to him – Christ had died on his behalf – his commitment to God was patchy.
He was not “living the Bible daily”, and this concerned him.
As a sign of deeper commitment he was baptised in the London church he now attends.
God, Ben is convinced, has “led me on this path to where I am now.”
His career is “something God has placed on my heart.”
I get the impression that, deeply committed as Ben is to his work on the stage, his commitment to God is greater.
What difference does Ben’s faith make?
The Bible comes alive for him, he says, as through its words God gives wisdom, and nourishes his faith, hope, joy and love.
Ben finds it “really comforting” to know when he is turned down for a job, that “God has a plan for me. I’ll be fine”.
Praying as he walks to the theatre each morning, he sees the beauty of natural things as a sign of God’s creative genius.
And sometimes he’s offered a part and reads the script, and wonders “Morally, do I find this acceptable? Is this something I want to be part of?” and turns down the work.
“‘That’s something you can be proud of,” he says.
Sleeping Beauty is based on an ancient story about the Prince whose kiss banishes darkness and death, restoring the Princess to life.
It has echoes of the greatest story ever told, the story of Jesus who brings life and hope where there is only brokenness and death.
And so Prince Callum’s role reminds me of the Prince of Heaven whose presence, as Ben and so many others have discovered for themselves, is the kiss which makes everything new.
