The “bus” pulls away as the conductor begins to collect fares.
No one can embark without the price bein’ paid.
(To Mickey) Yeh?
Mickey (handing over his money) A fourpenny scholar.
Conductor How old are y”?
Linda He’s fourteen. Both of us are. A fourpenny scholar for me as well.
The conductor gives out the tickets as Sammy offers his money
Sammy Same for me.
Conductor No son. Confrontation
Sammy What?
Conductor You’re older than fourteen
Mickey (worried) Sammy…
Sammy Shut it. (To the conductor) I’m fourteen I wanna fourpenny scholar.
Conductor Do you know the penalty for tryin’ to defraud…
Sammy I’m not defraudin’ no one
Conductor (Shouting to the driver) ‘Ey, Billy, take the next left will y’. we’ve got one
for the cop shop here.
Sammy What? (He stands up)
Mickey He didn’t mean it, mister, don’t be soft. He, he was jokin’. Sammy tell him,
tell him you’re really sixteen. I’ll lend you the rest of the fare…
Sammy (considers: then) Fuck off! (he produces a knife. To the conductor)
Now move, you, move! Give me the bag.
Mickey Sammy…Sammy…
Sammy (to the conductor) I said give. Stop the bus
The conductor rings the bell to stop the “bus”
Come on, Mickey.
Linda You stay where y’ are, Mickey. You done nothin’
Mickey Sammy, Sammy put that away… it’s still not too late (to the conductor) is it,
Mister?
Sammy Mickey.
Linda He’s stayin’ here.
Sammy No-mark!
Media Perspective!
We got into small groups and were given the task to explore the media perspective if the blood brothers story had actually happened. We decided to do a show called ‘Whats that Buzz’ which was a ‘gossip’ show. Kate and I were the presenters, Michael and Ash were Mickey and Eddie and Jade played
Mrs. Johnstone. We had an idea of recording our show on camera, and instead of having Mrs. Johnstone come into the studio but ring up. We pre recorded what me and Kate said and jade stepped out on stage with a phone talking to us, and I think we got the timing just right, I was really pleased with it. Mrs. Johnstone came across as an emotional wreck when we brought up her sons, we thought it would be funny if Mrs. Johnstone blamed the media for the death of her sons rather than pointing to the obvious, Linda.
Mrs. Johnstone said the Media pushed Mickey over the edge by writing stories of sexual relationships between friends when the woman’s husband was in prison. We also explored what the publics views on the blood brothers story was, such as was it just a money scam of Mrs. Johnstone’s so she would get money from all this up roar, etc.
We performed these by Kate and I walking out from the curtains behind the television where our footage was being shown, and on the T.V me and Kate walk off camera so it almost looked as if we had walked out of the T.V. then on stage we showed short plays of what we said had happened. Another possibility was that Linda’s baby was actually Eddie’s so we showed what that would have been like we had Eddie and Mickey on stage and Linda, then she tells Mickey, then he punches Eddie.
I really liked the idea of using the T.V so it was an actual television show. I think we could have improved it by not rushing it so much because of our time limit on this piece but also the place we filmed it because we were very limited for choice in our school. However I think we got the right idea about the whole media perspective.
I liked Dan and Josh’s Idea of having a talk show and having Josh being Mickey sat in the audience whilst Eddie was on stage with Linda. Then Mickey stands up with a gun taking the whole audience hostage, I liked how they involved every one and gave it that feel of realism. I think they could have improved it by having Rory, the host standing up because through-out most of it, all of the people on stage were sat down so it didn’t look as interesting as it could have.
‘Blood Brothers opening song.’
Once I had a husband, you know the sort of chap, I met him at a dance and how he came on the chat. He said my eyes were deep blue pools, my skin as soft as snow; he told me that I was sexier than Marilyn Monroe
And we went dancing,
We went dancing
Then, of course, I found that I was six weeks overdue. We got married at the registry an’ then we had a ‘do’. We had curly salmon sandwiches, an’ how the ale did flow, they said the bride was lovelier than Marilyn Monroe.
And we went dancing,
Yes, we went dancing
Then the baby came along, we called him Darren Wayne, Then three months on I found that I was in the club again, an’ though I still fancied dancing, my husband wouldn’t go, with a wife he said was twice the size of
Marilyn Monroe.
No more dancing,
No more dancing
By the time I was twenty-five, I looked like forty-two, with seven hungry mouths to feed and one more nearly due. My husband he walked out on me, a month or two ago, for a girl they say who looks a bit like Marilyn Monroe
And they go dancing
They go dancing
Yes they go dancing
They go….
‘Blood brother Final song’
Tell me it’s not true,
say it’s just a story,
something on the news
tell me it’s not true
though it’s here before me,
say it’s just a dream,
say it’s just a scene
from an old movie years ago,
from an old movie of Marilyn Monroe. Say it’s just some clowns,
two players in the limelight,
and bring the curtain down,
say it’s just two clowns,
who couldn’t get their lines right,
say it’s just a show on the radio.
That we can turn over and start again, that we can turn over, it’s only a game
Tell me it’s not true
say I only dreamed it,
and morning will come soon.
Tell me it’s not true,
say you didn’t mean it,
say it’s just pretend,
say it’s just the end
of an old movie from years ago
of an old movie with Marilyn Monroe.
We worked with two songs from Blood brothers; the opening and final song, both sung by Mrs. Johnstone. We got into groups and discussed what the purpose of each of the songs was and how we could add movement to it to tell the story and make obvious who was who by using mime. In this way the songs were both being used effectively as narration, and a good way of interpreting the song
The first song is an active narrative, it tells you what is happening as it happens, so for example when she sings “we got married then we had a “do” Josh who played Mr. Johnstone got on his knee and placed a ring on my engagement finger. Then we started dancing with the others and people were taking pictures of us, “the happy couple.”
The first Photograph was taken in the first song when Mr. Johnstone has just left Mrs. Johnstone for a younger, thinner, childless version her of. ‘Amie’ who is in his arms. Then there is me, Mrs. Johnstone is the back holding a baby, left alone, and all the attention is on the new girl.
We linked the two songs by having myself stay on stage miming holding two babies in my arms, Amie then gave me some money in return for one of the babies, so I handed her one then walked off to the back of the stage were Josh Dan Kate Adam and Harry stood with their back to the audience. I think that it was a neat change over and it had told the story in one. The story of the blood brothers had begun.
The second photograph was taken at the end of the second song when the twins had both died.
The second song was a passive narrative so didn’t have one event happening after the other.
We decided to start from when the boys first meet and we brought the first song we looked at in blood brother which was the kids singing 1-10 then you get back up again which was basically a war game. So we played that then from josh kicking a ball times completely changed he walked off to get the ball then he came back on to see Dan, Kate Harry and myself smoking and drinking and from 7 we turned 17.Dan (Mickey) then turned round with his back to me and when he
looked back I was hugging josh who was Eddie and got jealous then started on Eddie with myself in the middle of
them with my hand in front of Mickey’s face shacking my head, This then showed clearly who was who. I was Linda, Josh was Eddie and Dan played Mickey. Mickey pushes Linda away then pulls out a gun on Eddie then shoots I them sit next to Eddie on the floor crying looking at Mickey shacking my head then he drops his gun looking behind him where Harry Adam and Kate stood with guns pointing at him then shoot. We said that the three of them could have represented his guilty conscious or just simply the police.
Throughout the whole of this song Amie who played either Mrs. Lyons or Mrs. Johnstone sat towards the audience with broken hearted expressions as if she was telling the story and we were her memory, re-living it in her mind. I think this was really affective because in the space of 6minutes we re-lived the whole of a 2hour play in mime using the two main songs as the narrator. I was very pleased with them but could have improved the first one because we didn’t put so much thought into it.
