Two of Us – Watford Palace Theatre

Writers: Mark Stanfield, Richard Short and Barry Sloane

Director: Scott Williams

It will have escaped the notice of very few that the Gallagher brothers recently patched up their differences to re-form the pop band Oasis. Yet, with much less publicity almost half a century ago, an even more momentous reunion seemed, briefly, on the cards. Two of Us is an account of a real-life meeting that took place between John Lennon and Paul McCartney in New York City in 1976, six years after the Beatles had split up.

Mark Stanfield’s screenplay has been adapted for the stage by himself, Richard Short and Barry Sloane. Sloane also plays the reclusive John Lennon, first seen pacing restlessly around his Manhattan penthouse apartment. He is isolated and bored, while the apartment, as envisioned in Amy Jane Cook’s set design, is neat, stylish and sterile. A ring on the entrance bell augers the arrival of an unexpected visitor.

Paul McCartney (Jay Johnson) is in town for gigs at Madison Square Garden with his new band, Wings. He is tired of journalists asking him if the Beatles will ever get back together and being unable to give an answer. So he goes in search of that answer. At first, the atmosphere is frosty as creative and personal differences surface. John insists that music should be born out of pain and mocks Paul’s lightweight style, as typified by Wings’ current hit, Silly Love Songs. There are also hints that, as in one of his solo songs, John is a jealous guy, resentful of Paul’s commercial success and the fact that Paul’s Yesterday had been named the Beatles’ most popular song.

A two-hander on a large stage, director Scott Williams does well to keep the production consistently engaging, assisted by the script’s liberal scatterings of name-dropping and frivolous jokes (John: “Yoko’s away”; Paul: “Oh! No”). Once the ice between the pair melts, with a little help from “friends”, what is revealed is two old buddies who had been best mates since the age of nine, going back over good and bad times and re-kindling a flame. Two working-class Liverpudlians, they had reached a pinnacle of fame, probably unequalled before or since, and their different ways of dealing with the massive pressures are revealing.

The writers seem to reach the conclusion that John’s wife Yoko and, to a lesser extent, Paul’s wife Lindawere the wedges that came between the music legends, but they are less interested in the divisions than in the bonds. The play’s biggest success comes in cutting through the well-publicised friction and finding a simple bromance that yielded, arguably, the most significant pairing in the history of popular music. In this, Two of Us feels truthful and very touching.

Runs until 21 September 2024, and then in Manchester