Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Eric Potts, Jake Abraham, Mark Moraghan, Lynn Francis, Daniel O’Brien, Stephanie Dooley, Alan Stocks, Roy Carruthers.
Special guest appearance by Pete Best.
Memorabilia is big business, some of it only worth the money to the person that truly wants to covet it, to see it take pride of place in a darkened room and never let anyone ever see it again. The private collector to whom a piano played by Billy Joel, Elton John or Tori Amos is as valuable, if not more so, than keeping the instrument used to create art out of sight of millions; a type of dystopian pleasure, a greed that undeniably stokes the furnaces of ownership but also in which hangs tales of intrigue, of lost items and found loves.
Julia Lennon cannot have known what she was starting when she taught her young son to play the banjo, this history made in that opening symbolic act, a story that has captivated millions, a tale in which Liverpool has cherished and in which the wider pop world has adored, all in that one act of mother-child bonding, an act of love, a moment in which cannot be repeated and one to which Rob Fennah has weaved together a legend’s lost instrument and the truth of memorabilia hunters world-wide.
In Lennon’s Banjo, the stage adaption of Rob Fennah’s and Helen A. Jones’ acclaimed novel, the lost banjo becomes its own star, the search for it having a far and wide effect in the lives of those trying to find it, and for one man, to whom The Beatles represents his own place of security and love, finding it means more than money, it is the chance to prove his life means something; a truth that we all share, even it means very little to anyone else.
A captivating drama with great touches of comedy, filled with honesty, a dynamic between the superb cast which is tremendous to witness, and above all a reminder to Liverpool and the outside world to cherish its artists more, that all the money in the world can you just about anything except integrity and the soul of those who made your day more bearable to live through.
A wonderful piece of theatre, Rob Fennah at his best and still the search goes on for the instrument that kick started pop history, Lennon’s Banjo strikes the exact right chord.
Ian D. Hall