THEATRE REVIEW: This Girl: The Cynthia Lennon Story - Hope Street Theatre, Liverpool.

This Girl is the latest production from local playwright, Mike Howl. It is being showcased at the Hope Street Theatre during International Beatleweek from 21st-26th August.

Hope Street theatre is a small, intimate venue accommodating approximately a 90 seat audience, extra seats having been added due to the production being exceptionally popular resulting in a sell-out. The extra seats were hard-up against the elevated stage which had a projector screen at the back-drop. Lighting was kept to a minimum using mainly ambient and accent lighting angled and directed to create a spotlight.

'This Girl' tells the true story of Cynthia Powell, a shy student from Hoylake (across the water from Liverpool), who fell in love with a young musician called John (Lennon) when they met at Liverpool Art College in 1957.

The play is a musical featuring original songs and charts the emotional journey of Cynthia’s life before, during and after Beatlemania. The story is told in two halves. The first half features snapshot moments from their lives together, with some Beatleesque-style songs and concentrated on young Cynthia, her meeting with Lennon, falling in love and how their romance blossomed leading to their secret marriage and birth of their son, Julian. Christina Rose played young Cynthia portraying her innocence and vulnerability well and her infatuation with Lennon. Adam Byrne as Lennon was less convincing as at first it was difficult to work out who was actually playing Lennon from the other cast members as Byrne’s red hair was puzzling. I think if he had dyed his hair black for the production it would have helped. The first few scenes were of Lennon’s friends at Liverpool College of Art in the late '50s and '60s and it brought back memories of when I attended in the late 1960s. The cast were dressed as I remembered the fashions then; I recalled wearing milk-bottle white tights, mini-skirts, knee-high boots and pinafore dresses and seeing boys in winkle-picker boots, Reefer jackets and black polo-neck sweaters.

Props were kept to a minimum as most of the scenes took place on a padded bench on the stage with the necessary clothing and equipment being stored in boxes behind it so that the cast could bring them out as required. The dialogue was interspersed with videos on the projector screen complimenting the action on stage. Unfortunately the scenes shot at outdoor locations, i.e. Menlove Avenue, Liverpool outside Lennon’s Aunt Mimi’s house, were poor as the sound quality was not the best due to the loud sound of the wind whistling whilst the actors were talking and unfortunately the dialogue not being in sync with the actors’ mouths. This was disheartening as it was a clever addition to the show. There were black and white scenes of Cynthia and Lennon with their student friends shot inside a Liverpool pub which brought back memories as they were counting out their pennies to pay for drinks in shillings and pence and the '60s references to Double Diamond beer, Mackeson and Cherry B were nostalgic. As were the references to the infamous Reece’s Ballroom in Parker Street, Liverpool where Cynthia and Lennon had a meal after their wedding in 1962 as many young couples did in that era. Videos of the actual Beatles in the Top Ten club in Hamburg during their early days were enjoyable as were the scenes on stage of Cynthia helping Lennon to write one of their songs, 'You’re Gonna Lose That Girl'.

Playwrite Howl was keen to display of how the powerful influence the first Mrs Lennon held the band together during the years of their greatest successes and how important she was in Lennon’s life and not just because of their son Julian. The first half ended with young Cynthia finding Lennon and Yoko Ono at her house upon arriving home from a two week holiday with Julian.

After the interval, Mikyla Jane Durkan took on the role of older Cynthia. It was a smooth transition as Durkan was convincing as the character whose life was full of good and bad times, but also one peppered with laughter and humour. Peter Durr who played older Lennon was convincing in both looks (wearing a wig and false beard) and Liverpudlian accent. Lee Clotworthy as Julian is a talented actor but unfortunately bore little resemblance to Julian Lennon which was a shame. Scenes between Durr and Clotworthy reminiscing about Lennon’s lack of time spent with Julian were poignant and the depiction of the love between Julian and his mother was heart-warming. At one point Durr sang 'Those Were The Days', a song reminiscing about happy times spent with family and friends in a pub which was a hit for Mary Hopkin in 1968, produced by Paul McCartney. She encouraged the audience to sing along which they did with pleasure and a nostalgic glint in their eye.

Apparently, whilst the playwright was researching 'This Girl', he put out an appeal for people with first-hand memories of Cynthia to come forward. One who responded was Julian Lennon who said he was pleased someone was finally writing about how talented his mother was, since the entire world has written about his father and no-one has paid her any attention. This play has endeavoured to put that issue to rights. It’s a story which has never really been told on stage before as Lennon was told to keep their relationship and marriage secret during the early days of the Beatles by their manager Brian Epstein who thought the group’s fans wouldn’t like one of their idols to be married or in a committed relationship.

Cynthia died in Spain in 2015; she had kept painting and had married three more times. She would have been 80 this year, and it’s unfortunate that this play was not staged whilst she was alive. Her relationship had withstood Lennon’s one-night stands when the Beatles found international success and before their divorce in 1968 she witnessed the Beatles' transformation from popular Liverpool group to global stars. She would have been a knowledgeable source of information about Lennon and the whole of the Beatles story. Cynthia was a gifted illustrator and several of her cartoon-style drawings of the band’s early years are displayed at the Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool’s Albert Dock; she also had a London exhibition of her work in 1999 and published a book about her early life and a more serious memoir to Lennon.

This play celebrates the life of Cynthia Lennon and places her firmly in the annals of pop history. The true identity of the “fifth Beatle” is a contentious matter for fans of the Fab Four. The name of Stuart Sutcliffe, Lennon’s close friend, is often put forward, as is the ousted drummer, Pete Best. Others claim the title for manager Brian Epstein or record producer George Martin. Yet Cynthia Lennon, the artist by the young Lennon’s side for a decade, has never even been considered but Howl has given appropriate credit to her creativity and to the stabilising effect she had on her young husband through this entertaining piece of theatre. He cites that “Their relationship helped to keep the Beatles together for as long as they were.” I’m not sure this was the case but as Cynthia said in one of her books, her years with Lennon in Liverpool were the best of her life and the play depicted how she had never stopped loving him.

It was an enjoyable exploration into the life of a shy, young woman whose life has been mainly overlooked.

'This Girl' is on stage from 21-26 August at Liverpool’s Hope Street Theatre with additional performances at the Empire Suite, Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool as part of Convention Day on Sunday 25th August.

Reviewer - Anne Pritchard
on - 21/8/19