The heat in Liverpool, even at ten in the morning, has begun to drain people and what feels like the longest heat-wave since 1976 takes on the atmosphere in the city and it feels strangely quiet around the area of St. Luke’s as crowds flock to river to get some sea breeze and seek some sort of shelter against the summer sun. One man though who forever seems in good spirits and who can turn an overcast, thundery day into a ray of sunshine is Eddie John Fortune.
I manage to grab some time with Mr. Fortune ahead of his new play at The Unity Theatre and this year’s Queertet at the Lantern Theatre. Always a joy to watch and delight to chat to as his unique sense of teasing humour comes out during the conversation, I asked Eddie about the forthcoming ahead, the new play and working with Grin Theatre.
You are a very busy man; you have two projects coming up in the next couple of weeks that will be taking up even more of your time. I’m not sure how you keep going.
Eddie: “Well I’m also mixing it with being a waiter as well (laughs) I’m doing Eddie and Jackie, Jackie and Eddie at the Unity Theatre and that’s my baby, we started that in November, November 27th actually, the day after my sister’s birthday. We put in on at the annexe writer’s event and it was received fantastically, fabulously so, I don’t mind saying that at all, It’s why we decided to take it on further as it has legs and hopefully take it on the Lowry and persuade the Arts Council to donate us some money for it.
I’m chuffed for you as I have seen you, shall we say progress, come on leaps and bounds, but you have gone on from Elastic Bridge to Tongues at Café 81 earlier in the year and Love Me Do. It seems to be going really well.
Eddie: “The family orientated Tongues (laughs). You know what; I left Aberystwyth University with my Film and Television Degree after having dropped drama but came to Liverpool and started a new clean slate and I think if you want to learn your craft as an actor, you just do it. I mean I have had some shocking performances, they have been absolutely diabolical but I have learned from that and I have had some really lovely performances and some great reviews, you just live and learn and you make friends and break some friends sometimes, the acting world is a strange, bizarre and bonkers world but I love it.”
Where did the idea of Eddie and Jackie, Jackie and Eddie come from?
Eddie: “It came from Harry Sherriff, that’s the writer. Well we met last year, I walked into Bold Street Coffee and Becky was there and I asked her what she was doing there and looked at me and said what are you doing here? Then Harry came in and we sat down and we spoke for about an hour straight and didn’t let the writer speak at all because us actors are selfish like that (laughs), we like being in people’s faces and it was Eddie and Jackie in his head anyway which was co-incidental anyway. The show is devised around our improvisation and it’s silly, it’s absurd, it’s odd but it is a slice of life.”
Does art imitate life then?
Eddie: “Oh yes, you will see an awful lot of me on stage and you will also see some of the actors I have met on stage as well and all the strange pseudo people I have met, the strange singers that Becky has come into contact with and strange writers that Harry has happened upon and all the education and courses I have attend. It is a satire on the pretentious performers we can say for Eddie’s character. Jackie is more vulnerable.”
Becky is part of Ladyparts Theatre as well.
Eddie: “Yes she is an unsung actor. She only recently started a fresh, she has got a performance degree but she paused it but when you see her on stage she has that natural comic buzz about her. She is an honest performer. What you see in Eddie and Jackie is both of us, an extended version, and an extreme version of us.”
A caricature?
Eddie: “Yes, but I play someone who is quite cruel and nasty; so that’s really far detached from who I am (laughs). It’s a fantastic show and Harry Sherriff is a fantastic writer. The Unity Theatre where we are performing the play I have great feelings for. We performed Elastic Bridge there, hopefully we will perform Tongues there and of course we did Love Me Do as well which was an interesting show, a scary show as there was a lot of pressure, on my own on stage for 8 million hours (laughs). I love what I am doing, Eddie and Jackie is a scratch performance so it’s going to be fun, raw. We want it to be unpolished so it will look natural and a few Spice Girl and Madonna references.”
Turning away from Eddie and Jackie, before that, you are comparing this year’s Queertet at The Lantern Theatre.
Eddie: “I have been preparing new material and I going to bring Hetty the Hoover with me. The writer Jonathan Larkin of Hollyoaks, he is going to do a photo shoot with me in just my Batman underwear, my Batman pants and socks so that will be good.”
As it’s for Liverpool Pride, a case of The Darknight Rises?
Eddie: “(laughs) yes there is so much innuendo there (laughs), It’s going to be good. The event is not about me, it’s about all the actors and writers who have worked so hard to get it on. I am just there to keep the audience going between them, to sing a few songs, tell a few jokes and act a bit daft.”
Well, Grin Theatre are wonderful at this, last year’s event was superb.
Eddie: “Well hopefully the night will be about new writer’s progressing and moving on and pushing themselves.”
Do you feel an affinity with them having been in the process of Eddie and Jackie, especially with you acting as Producer?
Eddie: “Yeah, do you know what, I know a lot of writers and you can‘t tell them when to write, where to write, what to put down as they are a wonderful weird breed but they are fantastic. You have just got to let them do their thing and let them lock themselves in a darkened room for a few weeks. Harry is a great example as he works at his own unique pace, he has his own style and I haven’t worked with a writer who writes for me before and he hasn’t written with the idea of improvisation before so it was great fun and a great process.”
You of course worked with Kiefer Williams and Simon James for Tongues, so there is this obvious wonderful cohesion between you so are you looking forward to being part of the Grin Theatre Family again?
Eddie: “Yes of course. I am hoping to move away though at some point as I have a few auditions soon, for plays that will tour that are coming up. I will always have an affinity with them, Kiefer and the laid back Simon are just fabulous and I hope they apply for Arts Council funding and make their community theatre and progress further, there is nothing better than that as it makes you feel worth as a performer.”
How important do you think Liverpool Pride is to the city and the community?
Eddie: “You know what, Liverpool Pride is a fantastic thing. A lot of people might think it’s just for the partying but when you look back to 1967 and three months after Brian Epstein died, homosexuality was legalised and that in terms of time is still really close with the things that happened in the 80s and the people that fought the way for the community as a whole since those times. It’s good to go and have fun but it’s not just about the party. I read Paul O’Grady’s book and the secret things that people done to keep everybody else happy, we are all the same, just spread the love know what I mean. I haven’t got time for people that won’t spread the love.”
Ian D. Hall