HONOUR, valour and pride are the key words used to describe the Clapton Orient players who fought for their King and their country, according to The Greater Game director Tilly Vosburgh.

A hundred years on from the Battle of the Somme where three of the team’s best players died, a star-studded cast including Charlie Clements, known for playing Bradley in Eastenders and Nick Hancock, from They Think It’s All Over and Room 101, pay tribute to the prowess of the club, which was a forerunner of Leyton Orient FC and the first to enlist en masse, in a new production at Southwark Playhouse.

Tilly, who has been involved in the play since they began pitching the idea four years ago, hopes to relay some of Leyton Orient’s history to the O’s faithful.

“I hope they feel super proud, even though their team is not in the top flight now, their players were brave,” she said.

“I just think they will connect with it, a lot of them know the story anyway, I think a lot of Leyton Orient fans know, of all the people in the country they would know.

“Even if they have just read it in the club bar, for that story to be brought to life I am hoping that will really mean a lot to them.”

What was a challenging aspect for writer Michael Head in getting it from page to stage was when TV and film companies offered to produce the play if he changed Leyton Orient to Arsenal.

However, as an Orient fan himself, Michael stuck to his guns as he wanted their story to have an authentic voice and Tilly agreed with his sentiment.

She added: “I think one of the most interesting things about the play is that it is a true story and to mess around with such a key fact would be a real shame.

“When we went to the ground, the guy who wrote the book They Took the Lead, Steve Jenkins, told us he thinks one of the reasons why Leyton Orient isn’t such a big team as Arsenal and Spurs is because of the losses they suffered in the First World War.

“They never fully recovered and got themselves back up again, but actually at the time they were a really successful team.

“Their manager, Billy Holmes, was absolutely amazing at scouting and training and he built something really brilliant.

“But it never ever got back to its strength again, so to make it Arsenal would have been nuts really.”

The play may have never been if it wasn’t for the 55-year-old’s love for football and how much she connected with the play as originally she and Michael were working on something completely different.

She had met Michael years before after she taught a screen acting course at the LSMT College where she teaches from time to time to take a break from her acting career.

But what makes the play even more inspiring is how quickly they have been able to get up and running after a stall in production a couple of years back.

“To be honest we had to find somewhere pretty quickly as we were given some sponsorship by the Royal British Legion, which is just fantastic,” said Tilly.

“We had to start frantically ringing around theatres and I couldn’t quite believe it when Michael said he had got Southwark because I thought it was so perfect.

“It just seemed to be a bit too good to be true in a way.”

Southwark Playhouse, September 15 to October 15. Details: southwarkplayhouse.co.uk