Brian was discharged from the army, probably because he was gay. He went to drama school, got caught cottaging and was arrested, and kept that from his family. Then, in Liverpool, he got beaten up when he was cruising in the docks and was blackmailed. With the support of his family he took the case to the police. But to come out to his family when it was still illegal imagine the scale of that? He had this deep shame.
In the play I explore the fact that although The Beatles loved Brian like a father, John was pretty offensive to him at times. When Brian stumbled across the band in their leather jackets, smoking and swearing, it’s obvious that he fancied the hell out of them. His desire manifested in his drive to make them stars and it influenced his decisions: he tidied them up, put them in the suits you could bring them home to Mum and Dad. He knew he could never bring the men he liked home to his parents.
By Tom Wright
Header photo by David Lindsay
Please Please Me runs Thursday 16 April – Saturday 23 May. 7.30pm, 2.30pm (Wed & Sat only). From £15. Kiln Theatre, NW6 7JR. kilntheatre.com
This article appears in the Winter 2026 issue of JR.
Source link
