John Lennon’s book In His Own Write to be performed at Edinburgh
Collection of nonsense rhymes will be heard in full for the first time, 35 years after the former Beatle’s death.
Thirty-five years after his death, the first unabridged performance of John Lennon’s nonsense poetry will take place at the Edinburgh festival fringe after a crowdfunding campaign reached its target.
Backed by the musician’s widow, Yoko Ono, who said she might travel to Scotland to see the production later this summer, the new adaptation is the first time In His Own Write – Lennon’s wordplay-obsessed collection of nonsense rhymes and drawings – will have been performed since Lennon read extracts of it on television in 1964.
Baldynoggin Productions has cast three actors for the show, including director Jonathan Glew, who was responsible for getting permission to use In His Own Write from the Lennon estate. The estate, run by Ono, is notoriously careful about granting access to any of the Beatle’s works.
“I basically spent a week writing the best letter of my life,” Glew told the Financial Times. He said he had decided to go to the free fringe – where production companies are not charged for venue rental, provided they offer free admission – “to show that my motives were pure, and that I was not trying to take any kind of financial advantage of the Lennon name”.
By: Tracy McVeigh
Source: The Guardian
