The Famous Play Paul McCartney Wanted to Direct a Version of — ‘It’s a Hard Job’
Paul McCartney is an artist with multiple talents. He’s known for being an iconic songwriter and musician but has also appeared in movies and has dabbled in painting. Paul McCartney had visions of directing a famous play but ultimately decided against it.
Paul McCartney used to read plays on the bus
In an interview with Barnes & Noble’s James Daunt, Paul McCartney discussed how he got into literature when he was younger. He said he had a great interest in literature because of a teacher at his school in Liverpool.
“Having this teacher in the Liverpool Institute turned me on to literature,” McCartney said. “Which I never pursued in the kind of academic way, but I did in a more sort of freewheeling way, but having access to all these things, and I’ve been able to dip into little thing just like James Thurber, you know, they color what you think.”
McCartney often caught up on his literature by reading plays on the bus, leading to an appreciation for theater.
“I used to read quite a few plays on the bus, you know, I’d have little play going,” he added. “Sail Away, or Camino Real was one of my favorites.”
Paul McCartney wanted to direct a version of ‘Camino Real’
Camino Real is a 1953 play by Tennessee Williams about a remote Spanish-speaking town where strange events occur. Several versions of the play have been brought to life, but McCartney, at one point, wanted to throw hit in the ring and direct his version. However, he ultimately decided against it after becoming aware of how difficult directing is.
“I used to fancy myself as a bit of an artist, you know, because once you get involved in it, you want to become it, you want it in your life even more than just reading the book. There were certain things like Camino Real was one, that I thought I want to direct this, I want to direct a version of this…I wanted to direct. I’m not sure I do now because I realize now it’s a hard job and it would be very much in public. I wouldn’t just be some regional director having a go. I think it all adds to what you do, you know, and what you love. It all just becomes part of you if you’re lucky.”
McCartney and John Lennon worked on an unfinished play together
Paul McCartney almost broke into a theater with a play he never finished with John Lennon. In an interview with the BBC, McCartney said that he and Lennon worked on a play called Pilchard before forming The Beatles. However, they only finished writing four pages.
“We were just hanging out, writing our early songs. We started this play,” McCartney recalled. “I thought that was lost. It’s quite a funny little thing. It’s called Pilchard and it’s about the Messiah. It was in the era of the kitchen sink [drama]. The idea was the mother and the daughter are in the kitchen area… and they’re just talking. The mother says, ‘Where’s Pilchard?’ And the daughter says, ‘He’s upstairs again’… The idea was the whole story would go on and on and it was the Messiah, and that’s why he never came down.”
Fortunately, McCartney and Lennon finished hundreds of songs together that would become rock n’ roll classics.
