The first UK national tour of Helen Forrester’s Twopence To Cross The Mersey comes to an end next month in Liverpool.
The show opened in Wirral in September – a place which features heavily in Helen’s million-selling books and where the celebrated author spent much of her childhood. The much-loved production now comes home to the city where it all began.
Twopence To Cross The Mersey UK premiere tour 2022 has played to audiences across the UK at 15 venues and has been receiving 5 Star reviews and enthralling audiences.
The brand new stage production premiered at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton, playing for a week. It then continued to venues in Rhyl, Stockport, Crewe, St Helens, Blackpool, Warrington, Darlington, Halifax, Croydon, Coventry, Lichfield, Bolton, and Southport – now it will conclude in Liverpool at the Epstein Theatre.
Twopence To Cross The Mersey will pay The Atkinson in Southport from 1-4 November and the Epstein Theatre from 5-12 November.
The new touring production of Twopence To Cross The Mersey is produced by Rob Fennah and Lynn McDermott for Pulse Records Limited in association with Bill Elms and directed by Gareth Tudor Price.
The 9-strong cast play more than 40 characters – they are Mark Moraghan, Daniel Taylor, Parry Glasspool, Jenny Murphy, Lynn Francis, Lynne Fitzgerald, Robert Hudson, Roy Carruthers, and Chloe McDonald.
Playwright and producer Rob Fennah said, “Twopence has received some great reviews during its first full tour of the UK (another 5 star from Lichfield today) and we are all going to be at the beautiful Epstein Theatre in Liverpool to welcome it home on 5 November.”
Millions of people worldwide are familiar with Helen Forrester’s life story which is told through her best-selling volumes of autobiography, Twopence To Cross The Mersey, Liverpool Miss, By The Waters Of Liverpool, and Lime Street At Two.
Helen’s literary achievements were further celebrated in 2020 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.
The popular stage adaptation of Twopence To Cross The Mersey has been updated by writer Rob Fennah, who enjoyed a long friendship with Helen Forrester. Through their meeting of creative minds, Rob adapted Helen’s book into a stage musical in 1994 which was premiered at the Liverpool Empire Theatre. Helen travelled from her home in Edmonton, Canada, to see her story brought to life on stage.
Rob later went on to develop Twopence into a straight stage play which premiered in Liverpool in 2015, before touring England’s North West in 2016. Helen died in Edmonton in 2011.
Image credit: Anthony Robling
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