New play about the original fifth member of The Beatles Stuart Sutcliffe to premiere in Exeter ahead of tour

Made in Liverpool, a new play about Stuart Sutcliffe, the original fifth member of The Beatles, will premiere at Exeter Northcott Theatre in June 2027.

Written by Gerard McCarthy and directed by Exeter Northcott artistic director Martin Berry, the production will run from 16 June to 4 July 2027, with a press night on 24 June.

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

The production is presented by Exeter Northcott Theatre, Julian Stoneman and Robert Mackintosh for Made in Liverpool Productions Ltd. It follows the Northcott’s return to producing its own work and is intended to tour to other UK venues before a London transfer. Further venues and dates are to be announced.

The premiere will take place during Exeter Northcott Theatre’s 60th anniversary year. The theatre opened in 1967, the same year the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

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.

“Made in Liverpool 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. Amid the conflict, humour and heartbreak, it’s Stuart’s tumultuous relationship with his mother and his toxic friendship with John Lennon that 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?”

Berry added: “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.”

Casting and further creative team details will be announced in due course.