Craft Theatre present the premier of their new work Bed Peace: The Battle of Yohn and Joko, a show which in 2019 marks the 50 year anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s famous bed-in for peace; when the Lennons took over a hotel room, campaigned for peace and sparked a movement.
The 60s are often remembered as a time of peace but the conflict experienced in that decade was immense. It was a time of loss of peaceful heroes, with icons such as Martin Luther King killed the previous year. As the Vietnam War raged in 1969, John and Yoko held their two, week-long bed-ins intended as a non violent protest against war and violence, and as experimental tests of new ways to promote peace.
Now in Bed Peace: The Battle of Yohn and Joko, Craft Theatre bring John Lennon-esque wit, fire and honesty, and Yoko Ono-esque spirituality, philosophy and mystery, plus ensemble story-telling, physical theatre and live music to help bring to life once more, the energy of 1969 and the Lennons’ mission to bring peace to the world. This devised piece, set intimately in the round, captures these seminal protagonists; an artist’s impression of a snapshot of that unique time, and that unique relationship.
Recreating 1969, via the use of both verbatim and imagined script and creating a vehicle for audiences to experience this reality, Bed Peace is an exploration of the power of peaceful protest, of the power of art as protest and of the circumstances that lead to the creation of some of the most important music of our time. Bringing Lennon to life with all of his flaws and all of his humanity; this is an imagination of the experience of one of the most influential men in recent history and one of the most captivating relationships of the modern era.
From this two week experiment in a year of turmoil, came anthems for humanity – Bed Peace is exploration of the circumstances that led to the creation some of the most important music not only of that time but for generations to come,
The song Imagine written shortly after the experiment; it was the best-selling single of John Lennon’s solo career, its lyrics encouraging the listener to imagine a world at peace without the barriers of borders or the divisions of religion and nationality and to consider the possibility that the whole of humanity would live unattached to material possessions.
The Battle of Yohn and Joko is at The Cockpit 29th March to 28th April 2019.
