Eddie John Fortune is one of the new wave of Liverpool actors whose voice is being heard and his reputation enhanced by productions such as Elastic Bridge and Love Me Do (in which he portrayed the city’s legendry Brian Epstein.) He is in rehearsals for the new Keifer Williams play Tongues, directed by his dear friend Joe Shipman, and which will be coming to the theatre next year and in which he will act alongside one of his co-stars from Love Me Do, the impressive Charlie Griffiths. If that wasn’t enough for one man to be getting on with, he is developing his own stand-up comedy character Gwillam Dorey which is about a gay Welshman with a fatal attraction towards Glenn Close.
Eddie has come a long way since his early days in Toxteth and in the confines of the Philharmonic Hall’s downstairs cafe Eddie and I are able to talk of his love of acting, baring the responsibility of portraying a Liverpool icon, the way theatre can help and change people and what inspires him personally.
You recently portrayed Brian Epstein in Love Me Do at the Unity Theatre, how did it feel playing such an iconic figure from Liverpool’s musical heritage?
“It was overwhelming, it was amazing in fact and you know his best friend, his childhood friend Joseph Flannery came to the rehearsals to watch me play him and he came up to me, the first time I met him I said hello to him and he said, “Brian wouldn’t say that, he would say hello Joseph”, so the first time I met him I had to speak like Brian. He took me to one side and he had a tear in his eye and told me I looked like Brian and I reminded him so much of him and since then I have formed a friendship with him. I have been told a lot of great stories of the man of which I would never be able to express how great that was. All the great people he managed over the time, John Lennon, Paul McCartney…it has been a wonderful journey.
Joe gave me a cigar cutter that belonged to Brian years ago to wear on stage, so all in all the experience has been overwhelming, it’s been nice to play someone so classy and elegant and a bit posh you know (laughs). It’s been boss. It has also tied in nicely for the 50th anniversary and it is nice that the other play which I am going to see with Joe at the Epstein Theatre, it has been emotional.”
How has it made you look at the city?
“You know this play has actually made me fall in love with the city, with Liverpool more. I have been doing my history and researching Liverpool’s past and its sounds pretentious I know but I love Liverpool a lot.”
You are obviously a very proud Liverpool man, what was it like for example growing in Toxteth?
“Growing up in Toxteth had its difficulties as we lived with my nan and my cousin. My mum, my little brother, my big brother and I all lived in the same bedroom; there were three beds and five people. It wasn’t very glamorous and it was filmed at the time for being an area that was…well quite violent at time but there were still very nice people there. It was rough for me and the family with five of us sharing a bedroom; I wet the bed till I was 11, it was part of my childhood. It was an interesting living environment, it was difficult but you know but it means looking back I’ve got loads of material for stand up now. (laughs), my nan had an electric blanket which she used to lend me, Could have blown up the house (laughs).”
What drove you to become an actor?
“I was in school and I was playing the Good Samaritan but I was playing it in drag, I don’t know how the teachers got me to do this but I found out I was funny and people were laughing with me. From there I went to the youth theatre and had a wonderful experience, a director by the name of Heather Robson guided me and helped me flourish in myself on stage.
I took some time out and had a relationship and ended up in Aberystwth but before long I came back to Liverpool and did a few a plays including Elastic Bridge (Unity Theatre) and this is why I like doing what I do, because during that run one woman by the name of Fran Wilcock came up to me and told me her daughter had passed away. She was there with her husband and she whispered in my ear, “Thank you, you made my husband release his tears for the first time in such a long time”, that was year and a half ago and I am still speaking to her now. It’s worth doing what I do even if it just makes one person smile in 500.”
Elastic Bridge was a very powerful play! I was stunned by it!
“It’s such a tough subject suicide but that is why I do it is in the hope to make people feel something. Whether that’s to laugh, to cry or to be offended at least you’re feeling something.”
How do you feel that Liverpool Theatre is flourishing or visa-versa at the moment?
“You know since doing that play I’ve been visiting more Liverpool theatres, it’s a great scene and here is to Mello Mello staying open. There is also loads of theatre going on in New Brighton and of course with the new Everyman Theatre re-opening Christmas 2013, the fringe scene is amazing. The thing is about Liverpool theatre is every time I meet these people I realise they don’t get paid, they do it because they enjoy it and I see the same people for the past five years doing what they do and what they love and that’s why it’s brilliant. There is so much talent here that no-one knows about.
Creatively Liverpool is the tops, every time I go and see something theatrically I know people are doing it because they love it and that’s one thing I have discovered about Liverpool that makes it feel different to other cities. It is unique.”
What is your earliest theatre memory?
“My earliest memory of watching a play, would probably be Button Moon actually (laughs), the first real one would be Jesus Christ Superstar which was a great experience. I remember all the kids hissing and booing and laughing when Jesus and Judas shared a masculine kiss, it’s just a funny memory, they were forgetting the symbolism of what was going on stage and it’s a good memory and I thought then I want to be up on stage doing what they are doing, acting for the audience.”
Is there a part or role that you would dearly to play?
“I would love to play Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I adore that it is right up my street, I like mixing elegant with the psychotic.
Ian D. Hall