ACTOR Sian Reeves has been causing a stir on Corrie just weeks before she takes the headline role in the UK premiere tour of Helen Forrester’s By The Waters Of Liverpool.
The 53-year-old, also known for Emmerdale and Mount Pleasant, will play Helen’s mother, Celia, in the new stage production which is coming to Parr Hall on March 14 and 15.
By The Waters of Liverpool follows Helen Forrester’s Twopence To Cross The Mersey and charts the moving true story of the late author’s early life in poverty-stricken Liverpool. In the meantime, Sian has been playing a very different character in her dramatic storyline on the cobbles.
She portrays Charlie Wood – the wife Tim Metcalfe (Joe Duttine) did not know he had until he discovers that a drunken ceremony in Las Vegas was legally binding.
Fearful of being charged with bigamy, Tim tracks Charlie down and asks for a divorce. But things don’t quite go to plan when Charlie arrives in the street.
Sian said: “Charlie Wood is a sweet girl. When they meet up again, Tim doesn’t mention being married to Sally. He lavishes a lot of attention on her to get the divorce, and she thinks he’s in love with her.
“Humiliated when Sally confronts them – she runs off without signing the papers. But if Tim was hoping he’d seen the last of her, he was very much mistaken.”
From a spurned lover to a seemingly uncaring mother who feels crushed when her family is thrust into poverty, Sian described playing Celia Forrester as a ‘wonderfully complex’ role.
Sian Reeves
By The Waters Of Liverpool, which sold more than a million books, was adapted for the stage by writer, and friend of Helen Forrester, Rob Fennah.
Sian, an original cast member of the 1985 stage production of Les Misérables, added: “From money, status and class before the Great Depression of the 1930s, to then losing everything and being dumped in a damp bug-infested house with seven children to look after.
“She absolutely cannot shake herself out of the nightmare that is now her new life. She is stunned that her husband, who once held a senior position in the financial world, cannot find work and they have to grovel for hand-outs.
“To escape the confines of their now smelly, claustrophobic house, she leaves the day-to-day running of the family to her 11-year-old daughter Helen, which manifests itself and show her as a very strict and uncaring woman.
“Helen actually said of her mother: ‘Her bouts of temper bordered on insanity’ – it really shows just how exhausted and dreadfully depressed she is. It’s a great role to play.”
Sian has taken the story to heart as she will be unveiling a blue plaque next month at the late author’s family home in Hoylake – a place which featured heavily in Helen’s four-volume autobiography,
She will be joined by fellow cast member, Mark Moraghan who plays Helen’s father, and Helen’s son Robert Bhatia.
Sian said: “I feel very honoured to have been asked to unveil Helen’s blue plaque with my lovely co-star Mark Moraghan, who I’ve worked with before. Helen was a magnificently clever woman, and it will be lovely to meet some of her family at this very special occasion.”
By The Waters of Liverpool is at Parr Hall on March 14 and 15. Visit parrhall.culturewarrington.org
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