John and Mark
By Northern Outlet Theatre Company
Reviewed by Paul Thompson November 2014
Tantrums and stonewalling have been a couple of responses to George Gunby's John And Mark on the other side of the M62 – and it is this that occupies my mind as I lounge amid the eclectic seating and woozy light of the basement space in Canal Street's Taurus Bar.
For over there – in the city where it all started – an argument goes something like this: Lennon assassin Mark Chapman wanted to steal his victim's fame; and any work of art that features the potty pistol wielder as a main character is pandering to that very desire for infamy. At a glance, it's a specious – even seductive – jerk of the knee; but it doesn't take much twisting of the lens to capture the immaturity and farce of this thought process.