John Lennon, Stuart Sutcliffe & Rod Murray

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John Lennon, Stuart Sutcliffe & Rod Murray
Two typescript pages of a script written by John Lennon, Stuart Sutcliffe and Rod Murray for the Liverpool Art School Pantomime, 1959, the script, a Cinderella spoof, written by the three art college friends and flatmates at 11 Percy Street, Liverpool in late 1959, each page represents one scene, Scene One and Scene Two, various characters include: Hortense (Hort) and Gwyneth (Gwyn), the two ugly sisters, played by John Lennon and Geoff Mohammed, Ella (Cinders), played by June Harry, Fairy Snow (Fairy Godmother) [a soap powder name thought to be funny at the time], played by Stuart Sutcliffe, Borris (Dandienne), played by Rod Murray and Fred (Prince Charming), played by John Chase; the first scene includes a number of recognisable Lennon nonsense-language words and a characteristic 'cripple' reference, Lennon's hand is obvious in a sequence involving the ugly sisters (Lennon and Mohammed) called Ballet Dream:
John You brackish swine, thou pie swab fit
Geoff Help us gayn to woothy grit
John Go hence thee battered bun of bane
Geoff File on you crut so there a pain
John Don't quote my wrath please Kipper head...

Throughout the two scenes Ella (Cinders) repeats the line I got a painting in the John Moores Show...this becomes the pantomime's equivalent to the Prince's ball:
Buttons Ah poor girl: I must go and console her. so you have a painting in the John Moores. How marvellous
Ella But Hort and Gwyneth won't let me got to the Private view
Buttons Perhaps it is for the best: They are terrible things.
Ella But I wanted to be terribly arty and make the people think I'm a beatnikker.
Buttons Poor darling...

The John Moores reference is significant to the history of The Beatles, it was Stuart Sutcliffe who had his work accepted for this show at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, November, 1959; as a result of John Moores purchasing Sutcliffe's painting from the exhibition, he was able to buy a bass guitar with the money and to join The Beatles; the script is accompanied by a letter regarding the provenance from Rod Murray (2)

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Lot Essay

This pantomime was performed at Liverpool College of Art by John Lennon, Stuart Sutcliffe, Rod Murray and friends in late 1959/early 1960. History does not relate what happened to the rest of the script, but it seems highly probable that these two pages are all that remain of the original. According to Murray, it was in their Percy Street flat, where the collaboration took place and this script was penned, that John Lennon first asked Stuart Sutcliffe and himself if they would like to play bass guitar with The Beatles. Murray started to make a guitar, but was pipped to the post by Sutcliffe who managed to buy a bass after selling his painting to John Moores.

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