A trio of ‘site-specific’ performances will form the world premiere of a new theatre show with a difference next month.

Multi-Story Water will dramatise the history of life and environmental change in and around the River Aire and Leeds-Liverpool Canal in the Shipley and Saltaire area.

And each story will literally take audiences to the heart of the matter with a musical boat ride on the canal or two guided walks along the Aire – one in the greener area near Saltaire and the other in the post-industrial centre of Shipley.

The storytelling performances will follow three routes.

For Green Route, or Weir to Weir, the audience meet in Roberts Park, in Saltaire, and head west towards Hirst Wood, next to the Higher Coach Road estate, which was built on marshland in the 1950s.

In Blue Route, or Lock to Wharf, participants can take a step back in time with a barge journey on the canal – starting from Hirst Lock, travelling past Salts Mill, and over Bradford Beck.

For Red Route, or Mill to Mill, audiences meet on the canal towpath opposite Shipley Wharf, and weave their way through the post-industrial landscape of Shipley, recalling mill closures, bank crashes, flood mayhem and bank crashes.

The whole production is directed by Simon Brewis and will feature a host of Yorkshire-based actors including David Smith, Lynsey Jones and Richard Galloway, while musician and songwriter Eddie Lawler, known as the ‘Bard of Saltaire’, will also perform.

Multi-Story Water is part of a nationwide programme researching environmental change and is a collaboration between researchers in arts and sciences.

Stephen Bottoms, professor of contemporary theatre and performance at Manchester University, is heading the project in Shipley and Saltaire.

“Site-specific theatre practice has acquired increasing recognition in recent years,” he said.

“Such work often takes place in exciting environments, but it’s quite rare for it to explore environmental themes and issues – even though these are increasingly pressing for all of us, as the crazy weather and flooding in Yorkshire this summer showed.

“With Multi-Story Water, we’re trying to look at the way Shipley’s waterways connect people up in an area that can appear quite disconnected, socially.

“And people in the area, we’ve found, have a lot to say about this.”

Multi-Story Water will be performed from Friday, September 21, to Sunday, September 23.

All performances are free of charge, but booking is recommended.

Call 07722 248604 or e-mail msw-ship ley@hotmail.co.uk to reserve a place.

For further information see multi-story-shipley.co.uk