MADE IN LIVERPOOL to Premiere at Exeter Northcott Theatre

Exeter Northcott Theatre, Julian Stoneman and Robert Mackintosh for Made in Liverpool Productions Ltd have announced the world premiere of MADE IN LIVERPOOL, a new play by Gerard McCarthy, directed by the Northcott’s Artistic Director, Martin Berry. The production will run at Exeter Northcott Theatre from 16 June to 4 July 2027, with a press night on 24 June 2027.

MADE IN LIVERPOOL tells the story of Stuart Sutcliffe, the “fifth Beatle”, the young man John Lennon loved and the artist who died at just 21, and his mother’s struggle to remember her son for the person he was, rather than the legend that grew around him.

The announcement follows the Northcott’s return to producing its own work and a series of five-star “Made in Devon” productions. Following its premiere in Exeter, MADE IN LIVERPOOL is intended to tour to other UK venues ahead of a London transfer, in collaboration with Julian Stoneman and Robert Mackintosh for Made in Liverpool Productions Ltd. Further venues and dates will be announced.

The premiere also marks a milestone for the theatre. Exeter Northcott Theatre opened its doors in 1967, the year The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which went on to spend 27 weeks at number one in the UK album chart. On 25 June that year, The Beatles performed All You Need Is Love live on Our World, the first global satellite television broadcast. MADE IN LIVERPOOL will open in June 2027, the Northcott’s 60th anniversary year.

Writer Gerard 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?’

Director Martin 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.”

Robert Mackintosh, for Made in Liverpool Productions Ltd, said, “I was so intrigued by Stuart Sutcliffe’s biography, written by his sister Pauline together with author Douglas Thompson, that after we met and talked about Stuart’s extraordinary brief life, I was determined to turn it into a play. I was thrilled to get Gerard McCarthy to write the script, which perfectly captures the characters that would soon become the greatest pop band of our time. I was equally thrilled that Martin Berry shared our enthusiasm to direct the play at Exeter Northcott. Made In Liverpool tells it how it was”.