Lane Cove Theatre Company breaks from Formula with a play on Grief and the Beatles for Lane Cove @ Sydney Fringe

While Lane Cove Festival @ Sydney Fringe offers many productions from all over, Lane Cove Theatre Company are keeping things local with their production of ‘All Things Must Pass: A Play about the Beatles’, written by David Potter and directed by Luke Derrick, which will be performed at Pottery Lane Performance Space from the 10th to 13th of September.

This play is not a simple biography on the story of the Beatles but is an intimate look at grief as Ringo, George and Paul grapple with John Lennon’s death. The work moves between time, blurring together memories with reality. This show is intended for an adult audience due to strong language, sexual references and drug use. So, I recommend leaving the kids at home for this one!

Speaking with the director, Luke Derrick, it was clear he wanted to bring something original to Lane Cove audiences and to put on something that most in the audience had never seen before. Luke Derrick has been heavily involved with All Things Must Pass, being a stage manager for its original run back in 2012 with the Sydney University Dramatics Society. This will be the 3rd time this play will be staged, after being restaged again by the Dramatics Society in 2019. This will be the first time this play will be staged by a non-student company. Derrick stated, “I was keen to bring the production to an adult company, because so far it had only been produced in student theatre. And I wanted to see what it would be like to give quite experienced actors these characters to go on from.”

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Portraying Icons

All Things Must Pass is not alone in its depictions of performers like the Beatles. Hollywood is undergoing a ‘Biopic Boom’ at the moment with films such as Michael (2026), Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) and Elvis (2022) being extremely popular. Our cinemas have been excessively fed with stories of musical icons overcoming their struggles.

Most of the marketing around these biopics focus on the preparation involved to imitate these icons. Austin Butler in his portrayal of Elvis in Elvis (2022), underwent months of ‘Elvis Workshops’ and researching Elvis Presley interviews, songs and movies until he could recite them with complete accuracy. Even to the point of having Butler work with voice and movement coaches to channel Elvis’ exact mannerisms. (source)

All Things Must Pass breaks away from this formula. While Hollywood movies focus on moulding the shape and look to match up to these stars, All Things Must Pass isn’t interested in replicating an exact look but wanting to bring in “the vibe and feeling of the characters. Not doing an impression.” For example, the character of Paul McCartney has been cast as a woman and there’s no dancing around that in the play, they’re not trying to pretend she’s a man or dress her up as one. I found Derrick was more interested in the core of these characters and the different effects grief has on them, “We’re not imitating them, we are artistically creating the Beatles.”

Humour and Grief

The heart of this production is a heartfelt, surreal and at times humorous approach to grief. The play itself is not linear with it jumping around in time through memories and reality. Derrick was drawn to the play, “I honestly was really attracted to the dialogue and the actual scene pacing… There are very honest, real conversations that happen in the play and there are really sort of strange, dreamlike sequences in the play as the characters sort of bounce between John being alive and John being dead and their reactions to having lost him.”

Matt Clayton, who plays the part of George Harrison described the play as having “a lot of light and shade in the play.” Luke Derrick promises that the performance will “basically bend over laughing and cry at the same time.” All Things Must Pass plays between the lines of comedy and drama, making these distinct categories a lot more blurred. As Luke Derrick stated, “I’m a big believer that if you take a drama and you direct it like a drama, it can become incredibly serious and almost too stagnant and lost in itself. So, I’ve really tried to direct this to an extent of like a comedy.”

I believe that this style of directing makes for a much more honest depiction of grief. Just as we can’t separate the mixed feelings of joy and loss during the grieving process, All Things Must Pass doesn’t separate the humorous with the heartfelt. “Those higher moments of humour and energy… allows the moments where they’re mourning the loss of their friend. To hit even harder.”

Importance of Local Theatre

I found that a lot of thought and love has gone behind All Things Must Pass, which makes the fact that this is all been a volunteer-led production even more impressive. Derrick himself believed people were drawn into volunteering for this play because of the story itself. From Beatles fans to lovers of theatre who “enjoy putting on complex, interesting artistic works.”

I applaud Lane Cove Theatre Company for not only putting on a play around the complex nature of grief but also putting on a relatively unknown play. Matt Clayton stated:

While professional theatre struggles, with a growing list of cancelled performances such as Beetlejuice and Waitress due to cost of living pressures, local theatre is able to thrive without a need for commercial success, but on the enthusiasm of community members and a passion for creating something together.

Derrick found the importance of local theatre was “When people are allowed to express themselves, express their culture and explore the arts, communities, cities and populations thrive. So i think expressing ourselves in community settings where its not about how much money you have or how much money you have backing you. Those situations are incredibly important… but also [to] have fun and enjoy and build community and do things they love and provide this fun atmosphere for an audience.”

All Things Must Pass: A Play about the Beatles opens next Thursday, the 10th of September and continues to the 13th at the Pottery Lane Performance Space. You can also see everything happening this September across Lane Cove in our Lane Cove Festival 2026 Full Program Guide.

Lane Cove Festival 2026: Full Program, Every Event Listed