Made in Liverpool, a new play by Gerard McCarthy about Stuart Sutcliffe, the artist often called the "fifth Beatle", will have its world premiere at Exeter Northcott Theatre from 16 June to 4 July 2027. A UK tour and a London transfer are planned to follow.
Exeter Northcott Theatre will open its 60th anniversary year with a world premiere. Made in Liverpool, written by Gerard McCarthy and directed by Martin Berry, the Northcott's Creative Director and Joint Chief Executive, runs at the Exeter theatre from 16 June to 4 July 2027, with press night on 24 June.
The play turns on Stuart Sutcliffe, the young artist who left The Beatles in 1961 and died at 21. It sets his volatile friendship with John Lennon beside his relationship with his mother, and her struggle to remember the son she knew rather than the legend that later grew up around him.
The dates carry an echo of their own. The Northcott first opened in 1967, the year of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and the run takes in 25 June, the anniversary of the band performing All You Need Is Love live on Our World, the first global satellite television broadcast, that same summer.
McCarthy described the piece in these terms: "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." 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 is presented by Exeter Northcott Theatre with Julian Stoneman and Robert Mackintosh for Made in Liverpool Productions Ltd. Mackintosh traced the project to the biography of Sutcliffe written by his sister, Pauline Sutcliffe, with Douglas Thompson. Stoneman, whose own career began at the Northcott, said: "Made in Liverpool is about a young man who dared to follow his art, and it feels right that it begins here, in a theatre that has launched so many."
After Exeter, the play is intended to tour other UK venues ahead of a London transfer. Those venues and dates have not yet been announced, and casting and the rest of the creative team are to follow.
The premiere continues the Northcott's return to making its own work. Berry's productions there include The Commotion Time, Exe Men and Little Shop of Horrors. McCarthy, born in Belfast, is also an actor whose West End credits include Mamma Mia!, Saturday Night Fever and Tina - The Tina Turner Musical, in which he created the role of Erwin Bach. He has also written for Channel 4's Hollyoaks.
Previews are on 16, 17, 18, 19 and 23 June 2027. Evening performances begin at 7pm, with matinees at 2pm on 19 June and 3 July and at 3pm on 4 July. Tickets start at £19, and the play carries an age guidance of 14+, with swearing, violence and death among its content warnings. Northcott members can book from Monday 19 October 2026, and public booking opens on Tuesday 20 October at the theatre on Stocker Road, Exeter.
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