New Liverpool Venue and Full Cast Revealed For Autumn Tour of BY THE WATERS OF LIVERPOOL
The 2023 eight-week tour will now open at The Auditorium at M&S Bank Arena Liverpool on Monday 4 September.
By: Stephi Wild Jun. 14, 2023
The creative team bringing Helen Forrester play By The Waters Of Liverpool to stages across the UK this Autumn have revealed its full cast – along with a change to the Liverpool venue opening the tour.
The highly anticipated By The Waters Of Liverpool Autumn 2023 UK Tour has been a long time coming since its inaugural 12-week 17-venue tour in Spring 2020 was abandoned after visiting only three theatres due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 2023 eight-week tour will now open at The Auditorium at M&S Bank Arena Liverpool on Monday 4 September, and visit a further 11 venues across the country.
The tour was scheduled to open with 15 performances at the historic Grade II Listed Epstein Theatre in Liverpool city centre. However, the venue’s management team last week announced it would close at the end of June due to cuts in council funding, making the venue untenable.
The three remaining roles have now been announced. Tom Roberts will play John Forrester, Helen’s father. Joe Gill will play Harry O’Dwyer (Helen’s love interest). Newcomer Emma Mulligan will take the lead role of Helen Forrester.
The trio complete the nine-strong cast playing over 50 characters, and also features Lynn Francis, Daniel Taylor, Lynne Fitzgerald, Joe Owens, Samantha Alton, and Roy Carruthers who were all announced in April.
The new stage production is based on the book of the same name by the acclaimed author Helen Forrester. Her enigmatic and touching portrayal of her life story continues to win her fans worldwide through four best-selling volumes of autobiography Twopence To Cross The Mersey, Liverpool Miss, By The Waters of Liverpool, and Lime Street At Two.
By The Waters Of Liverpool Autumn 2023 UK Tour finally ventures out across the UK after its premiere run was cut short in March 2020. After some years in the planning, the production was just two weeks into a 17-venue tour spanning three months when the country went into a national lockdown.
By The Waters Of Liverpool Autumn 2023 UK Tour starts in Liverpool and finishes in New Brighton – both locations hugely important in Helen’s life story.
The tour will open with four performances at The Auditorium at M&S Bank Arena, later concluding with six days at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton in late October – just a few miles from where Helen Forrester was born in Wirral.
Between Liverpool and New Brighton, the production will also visit venues in Crewe, Coventry, Sale, Rhyl, Darlington, Lichfield, St Helens, Southport, Halifax, and Lytham.
By The Waters Of Liverpool is a stunning period drama produced by the team who brought the smash-hit Twopence To Cross The Mersey to the stage to rave reviews for a UK tour in Autumn 2022.
The creative team are producers Rob Fennah and Lynn McDermott for Pulse Theatre Productions and Bill Elms. The show is directed by Gareth Tudor Price and written by Rob Fennah.
The play also features sizeable chunks from Helen’s earlier book Liverpool Miss, together with flashbacks to Twopence To Cross The Mersey and elementsof Lime Street At Two to give audiences a complete picture of her life.
Tom Roberts has countless television credits including bad boy Scott Emberton in Coronation Street; DS Flanagan in Emmerdale; five seasons as Tony in 2point4 Children; EastEnders; Casualty; Holby City; Waterloo Road; Hustle; Brookside; Hollyoaks; Boon; and The Bill. Film credits include The Bradford Riots; Oh Mary, This London; The Casebook Of Eddie Brewer; Doreen: The Movie; and Just 14.
Having trained at Mountview Drama School, Tom’s theatre credits include Blood Brothers, Fiddler On The Roof, Kes, Death Of A Salesman, The Three Musketeers, Misconceptions, Bouncers, Changing Rooms, Intimate Exchanges, Frankenstein, April In Paris, Educating Rita, The Holly And The Ivy, On Golden Pond, and The Verdict. His extensive radio work includes drama for BBC Radio 4, as well as several appearances on The Archers.
Joe Gill is best known for playing the role of Finn Barton in ITV’s Emmerdale. He has also appeared in Brassic, Casualty, In The Flesh, The Sparticle Mystery, River City, In With The Flynns, and short film The Rest Is Flowers. Joe recently wrapped on his first leading feature film role in Treading Water, due for release later this year.
On stage Joe recently appeared in Into Battle at Greenwich Theatre to rave reviews. Theatre credits also include The Full Monty, Butterfly House, Tiger, Romeo & Juliet, and The Comedy of Errors. He has also worked on a web series BookStreamz – narrating and performing a wide variety of stories from well-known and undiscovered authors, streamed live to the homes of audiences.
Emma Mulligan is a 2021 acting graduate from East 15 Acting School. She is originally from Northern Ireland. Most recently she played the role of Marie in short film Undead Dilemma. Emma played numerous roles at drama school, including Dunyasha in The Cherry Orchard, Inez in No Exit, and Mattie-Fae in August: Osage County.
Four of the cast members announced recently – Lynn Francis, Daniel Taylor, Lynne Fitzgerald, and Roy Carruthers – are all returning after appearing in the Twopence To Cross The Mersey tour last year.
Lynn Francis is well-known on the Liverpool theatre scene. Her theatre credits include The Royal, Ladies Day, A Nightmare On Lime Street, and The Salon. Screen roles include Reds & Blues, The Ballad Of Dixie & Kenny, and Charlie Noades RIP. She also worked alongside Ian Hart and Dougray Scott in film The Lie Is Dead.
Daniel Taylor is an award-winning actor, producer, and theatre director. He has recently toured the UK in the lead role of Something About George – The George Harrison Story. Theatre credits also include Blood Brothers, The Very Best Of Tommy Cooper, Lennon: Through A Glass Onion, Down The Dock Road, and A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream. Television credits include Loose Women, The Bill, and Miranda’s Games With Showbiz Names.
Lynne Fitzgerald is best known for her comedy acting role. She is also an acclaimed writer and director. Theatre credits include Desperate Scousewives, 2Georgeous4U, Two, The Importance Of Being Earnest, Catfish Therapy, The Salon, Night Collar, and Last Train To Auschwitz.
Joe Owens has most recently been seen in the new and reimagined production of Masquerade at Liverpool’s Epstein Theatre. His training includes the BA Acting course and Foundation Certificate at LIPA, as well numerous years spent with the Young Everyman and Playhouse (YEP) company. Credits include Dogs directed by Nathan Powell; Love’s Labour’s Lost directed by Conor Wray; and Posh directed by Francesca Goodridge.
Samantha Alton is best known for her one-woman performance as Kitty in Kitty, Queen of The Washhouse, at Shakespeare North Playhouse. She has been performing professional for almost a decade now after graduating with first class honours in 2013.
Roy Carruthers is a familiar face on stages in Liverpool. Theatre credits include Ladies Night, Funny Money, Night Collar, The Price, and Lennon’s Banjo. Television credits include Good Cop, and Longford. Film credits Sparkle. Roy has also appeared on Radio 4’s Pick Of The Week programme.
Writer and producer Rob Fennah enjoyed a long friendship with Helen Forrester since adapting her first book Twopence To Cross The Mersey into a stage musical in 1994. It premiered at the Liverpool Empire Theatre and Helen travelled from her home in Edmonton, Canada, to see first-hand her story brought to life on stage. Rob later went on to develop Twopence into a straight play which has toured successfully since its first outing in 2015.
Since the author’s death in 2011, Rob has remained friends with Helen’s son Robert Bhatia. The productions are fully endorsed by the Helen Forrester Estate.
Writer and producer Rob Fennah said: “Announcing the full cast is taking another major step forward in bringing By The Waters Of Liverpool to life on stage once again. Our outstanding cast will tell Helen Forrester’s remarkable life story in ways to make people stop and think, laugh and cry, but most of all to appreciate her incredible writing.”
Co-producer Bill Elms added: “The announcement of The Epstein Theatre closure in Liverpool has been a huge blow across the city and the wider creative arts industry. We have been working hard to find a venue to ensure the tour can still start in Liverpool, a vital backdrop to Helen’s story. So we’re extremely thankful and grateful to the M&S Bank Arena for stepping in to save the day, which sees us transfer the show to The Auditorium – sitting on the banks of the River Mersey. It is a very fitting move now that By The Waters Of Liverpool is actually opening by the waters of Liverpool! It’s great knowing we’ll all be back out there again in less than three months taking Helen’s wonderful story to audiences across the UK.”
By The Waters Of Liverpool has sold more than a million books. It is set in the 1930s after Helen’s father went bankrupt during the Depression. Her family were forced to leave behind the nannies, servants and comfortable middle-class life in the South West of England. The Forrester’s chose Liverpool to rebuild their shattered lives. They were in for a terrible shock. Taken out of school to look after her young siblings, Helen is sick of being treated as an unpaid slave and begins a bitter fight with her parents for the right to go out to work and make her own way in life. But by 1939 and with Britain on the verge of war Helen, now aged 20, has still never been kissed by a man. But things start looking up for her when she meets a tall strong seaman and falls in love.
Helen’s literary achievements were further celebrated in 2020 to mark her 100th Birthday when an iconic Blue Plaque was unveiled at the late author’s family home in Hoylake on the Wirral, a place which featured heavily in her work.
Helen Forrester’s son, Robert Bhatia, said: “The partnership between playwright Rob Fennah and my mother Helen, and her legacy, has been outstanding.”
Helen Forrester’s best-selling volumes of autobiography include Twopence To Cross The Mersey, Liverpool Miss, By The Waters Of Liverpool, and Lime Street At Two.
Tour Dates
LIVERPOOL – THE AUDITORIUM AT M&S BANK ARENA
Monday 4 September – Wednesday 6 September 2023
CREWE – LYCEUM
Monday 18 September – Tuesday 19 September 2023
COVENTRY – ALBANY THEATRE
Wednesday 20 September – Thursday 21 September 2023
SALE – WATERSIDE
Friday 22 September – Saturday 23 September 2023
RHYL – PAVILION
Tuesday 26 September – Wednesday 27 September 2023
DARLINGTON – HIPPODROME
Friday 29 September – Saturday 30 September 2023
www.darlingtonhippodrome.co.uk
LICHFIELD – GARRICK
Tuesday 3 October – Wednesday 4 October 2023
ST HELENS – THEATRE ROYAL
Monday 9 October – Wednesday 11 October 2023
SOUTHPORT– THE ATKINSON
Thursday 12 October – Saturday 14 October 2023
HALIFAX – VICTORIA THEATRE
Monday 16 October – Tuesday 17 October 2023
LYTHAM – LOWTHER PAVILION
Thursday 19 October – Saturday 21 October 2023
NEW BRIGHTON – FLORAL PAVILION
Tuesday 24 October – Sunday 29 October 2023
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