Helen Forrester's By The Waters Of Liverpool Opens In Four Weeks - Last Chance To See Life Story On Stage * Fairy Powered Productions

Pulse Stage Productions and Bill Elms present

JUST FOUR WEEKS UNTIL NEW

HELEN FORRESTER PLAY

‘BY THE WATERS OF LIVERPOOL’

OPENS ITS UK TOUR

Last chance to see Helen Forrester’s life story on stage

Cast features Coronation Street’s Tom Roberts and Emmerdale’s Joe Gill,

Emma Mulligan, Lynn Francis, Daniel Taylor, Lynne Fitzgerald,

Joe Owens, Samantha Alton, and Roy Carruthers

Autumn 2023 UK Tour will open in Liverpool on 4 September

followed by dates in Port Sunlight, Crewe, Coventry, Sale, Rhyl, Darlington,

Lichfield, St Helens, Southport, Halifax, Lytham, and New Brighton

By The Waters Of Liverpool Autumn 2023 UK Tour opens in four weeks. It tells the captivating life story of best-selling author Helen Forrester – and this will be the only chance fans will have to experience the new production live on stage.

The team behind By The Waters Of Liverpool and the earlier stage productions of Twopence To Cross The Mersey – which premiered in Liverpool almost 30 years ago – have announced the new tour will be the last one telling the life story of Helen’s fascinating life.

By The Waters Of Liverpool Autumn 2023 UK Tour will run for eight weeks visiting 13 venues across the country.

The tour will open in Liverpool on Monday 4 September 2023 and finish in New Brighton late October – with both locations being hugely important in Helen’s life story.

The team behind the production recently announced the full tour cast.

Coronation Street’s Tom Roberts will play John Forrester, Helen’s father; Emmerdale’s Joe Gill will play Harry O’Dwyer, Helen’s love interest; with Emma Mulligan in the lead role of Helen Forrester.

The nine-strong cast play more than 50 characters, and the line-up also features Lynn Francis, Daniel Taylor, Lynne Fitzgerald, Joe Owens, Samantha Alton, and Roy Carruthers.

Further cast information is included in the Notes To Editors.

The By The Waters Of Liverpool tour will open with four performances at The Auditorium at M&S Bank Arena, later concluding with six dates at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton in late October– just a few miles from where Helen Forrester was born in Wirral. Both venues are located on the banks of the River Mersey which was instrumental throughout Helen’s books.

Between the dates in Liverpool and New Brighton, the production will also visit venues in Port Sunlight, 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.

The creative team are producers Rob Fennah and Lynn McDermott for Pulse Stage Productions and Bill Elms. The show is directed by Gareth Tudor Price and written by Rob Fennah.

By The Waters Of Liverpool Autumn 2023 UK Tour is highly anticipated. Its inaugural tour was scheduled to run for 12 weeks across 17 venues in Spring 2020. It was abandoned after visiting only three theatres due to the Covid-19 pandemic and rescheduled twice when the pandemic failed to abate.

The team have now made the decision that this will be the ‘final chapter’ of Helen’s story on stage.

The original production of Twopence To Cross The Mersey was brought to the stage in 1994 when it was premiered at the Liverpool Empire Theatre. This is the final opportunity for fans of Helen’s million-selling books to experience her story first-hand.

Writer and producer Rob Fennah explained: “We’ve had a fantastic run with Twopence To Cross The Mersey over the years with hundreds of thousands of theatregoers flocking to see it. This new Helen Forrester play, By The Waters Of Liverpool, is an adaptation of her third autobiography and the final chapter of Helen’s life in Liverpool during the Great Depression.

“By The Waters Of Liverpool also features sizeable chunks from Helen’s earlier book Liverpool Miss, together with flashbacks to Twopence To Cross The Mersey. I’ve even weaved in a storyline from Helen’s fourth autobiography Lime Street At Two. That way, those unfamiliar with Helen’s work will still get a complete picture of her life.”

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 3 theatres into a 17-venue tour when the country was forced into a national lockdown.

Writer and producer, Rob Fennah, enjoyed a long friendship with Helen Forrester since adapting her first book Twopence To Cross The Mersey in 1994. Helen travelled from her home in Edmonton, Canada, to see first-hand her story brought to life on stage.

Prior to author’s death in 2011, Rob and Helen often discussed the possibility of another play to conclude her life story. By The Waters Of Liverpool is the result of many conversations and numerous letters between the author and playwright and, as such, the show is packed with provenance.

Rob has remained friends with Helen’s son, Robert Bhatia, and this production is fully endorsed by the Helen Forrester Estate.

Robert Bhatia, said: “The partnership between playwright Rob Fennah and my mother Helen, and her legacy, has been outstanding.”

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 100^th Birthday when an iconic Blue Plaque was unveiled at the Forrester family home in Hoylake on the Wirral, a place which featured heavily in her work.

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.

Written by Rob Fennah · Directed by Gareth Tudor Price

Produced by Pulse Stage Productions and Bill Elms

Fully endorsed by the Helen Forrester Estate

Website: www.bythewatersofliverpool.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ByTheWatersThePlay

YouTube: https://youtu.be/r6TLMnPUleg

LISTING INFORMATION

HELEN FORRESTER’S

BY THE WATERS OF LIVERPOOL

LIVERPOOL – THE AUDITORIUM AT M&S BANK ARENA

Monday 4 September – Wednesday 6 September 2023

www.mandsbankarena.com