Made in Liverpool: new play about the original fifth Beatle premieres in Exeter

Made in Liverpool, a new play about Stuart Sutcliffe, the original fifth member of The Beatles, will have its world premiere at Exeter Northcott Theatre next summer. Written by Gerard McCarthy and directed by the Northcott's artistic director Martin Berry, it runs from 16 June to 4 July 2027, with a press night on 24 June.

The premiere falls in the Northcott's 60th anniversary year. The theatre opened in 1967, the same year the band released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which makes this a neat piece of programming for a venue marking six decades.

The story

The play explores Sutcliffe's life as a musician and an artist, his relationship with John Lennon, and his mother's struggle to remember her son as he really was, rather than the legend that grew up after his death at the age of 21.

McCarthy said: “When Stuart Sutcliffe quit the Beatles in 1961, nobody could have known they would become the most iconic band in music history. Fame, fortune, sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll might sound like the dream to most people, but Stuart had a dream of his own. What first drew me to this story was the nerve it took for him to choose his own future and what that choice meant for the people who’d imagined him in theirs.”

He added that the play “captures these young men when everything is still up for grabs: who they’ll become, where they’ll go and who’ll be beside them. The city’s blistering music scene sets the pace, and its signature wit, swagger and defiance run throughout the play as the boys find their own paths and discover they aren’t all heading in the same direction.”

At the heart of it, McCarthy says, are Sutcliffe's tumultuous relationship with his mother and his toxic friendship with Lennon, which give the play its central question: “what happens when the person you want beside you chooses a different life? How hard should you fight to keep them? And at what point does that stop being love?”

The production

Berry said: “We are not simply telling the story of a famous band before they were famous. We are entering a memory, and asking how myth forms around a young man whose life was cut short before he could define himself fully. The production will have huge heart, but it is not intended to be reverential. It will be full of friction, noise, tenderness, humour, theatrical surprise and dangerous energy.”

The show is presented by Exeter Northcott Theatre with Julian Stoneman and Robert Mackintosh for Made in Liverpool Productions Ltd. It follows the Northcott's return to producing its own work, and it is intended to tour to other UK venues before a London transfer.

When does it run?

The world premiere runs from 16 June to 4 July 2027, with a press night on 24 June. Further venues and dates for the tour that follows are to be announced.

Who is in the cast?

Casting has not yet been revealed. It will be announced in due course, along with further members of the creative team.

Who was the fifth Beatle?

Stuart Sutcliffe was an early member of the group who left in 1961 to pursue his own path as an artist. He died at just 21, and the play looks at how a legend formed around him after his death.

More to read

For more stories from the early days of the band on stage, see the new musical premiering at the Epstein Theatre, or read our review of the Brian Epstein drama at the Kiln Theatre.

Header image: official artwork.