Blood Brothers was set from the 1960’s to 1980’s in Liverpool whereas Blue Remembered Hills is set on a summer day in the west of England in 1943, during the Second World War, they are also both set at a specific time in the past.
Both plays focus on childhood and the way children play. Blue Remembered Hills has children as characters all the way through but in Blood Brothers we see the children grow up. Another difference is that in Blue Remembered Hills the play is set in an afternoon, it has a naturalistic time span and in Blood brothers it is set over twenty years.
Both plays are set in a time when life was hard for the majority of people. When Blood Brothers is set there was a very high level of unemployment and the class divide was obvious. In Blue Remembered Hills although there is no typical class divides as we know them (e.g. upper class and working class) there is in a way though, we can see this when we look at Donald in the play. Donald is an abused child and the other children pick up on his vulnerability “… I shall tell his mama. Her’ll skin him alive, won’t her, Donald Duck? Won’t her? She hits you with the poker, don’t she!” This shows that Donald is not only being treated badly by his mother but also by his friends.
In our performance of Blue Remembered Hills we all had to play children. I played Audrey; to show Audrey was seven years old I emphasized a child’s normal behavior and mannerisms. One way I did this was by standing with my toes pointed inwards and my hands left hanging loosely by my sides. I had to make this behavior look natural, as Blue Remembered Hills is a naturalistic play. This is different from Blood Brothers, which is a non-naturalistic play, this is because the characters break out into songs in the performance, they use these to convey to the audience how they are feeling and what they are thinking (e.g. when Mickey and Eddie sing ‘that guy’).
In Blood Brothers there is a narrator, who speaks at points through the play, he also interacts with the characters by handing them props (e.g. when he hands Mrs. Lyons the bible for Mrs. Lyons to swear on). There were also lots of people who played lots of different small parts in Blood Brothers (e.g. the men in the dole queue, the police and prison officers). This is contrasting to Blue Remembered Hills where all the actors only play one character and there is no other characters or narrators in the play. Having no narrator or songs in Blue Remembered Hills means that the only way the characters can communicate with the audience is through their interaction with the other characters. This also means that the actors have to look more closely at their actions, mannerisms and body language, as the audience will interpret all of these to determine what the character is thinking and feeling. For this reason when I played Audrey I had very obvious signs to show her emotion, when she was angry I would screw up my face, talk very fast and loudly, keep my arms crossed or my hands in fists and stand with a high straight posture. However when Audrey was scared I would have my hands clasped together in front of me, my head bowed, my posture would be lower and I would speak in a quite and shaky voice.
Both Blue Remembered Hills and Blood Brothers use props and costumes. In our performance of Blue Remembered Hills we used a tree and a door in some scenes. These were to help show the setting to the audience. We also all wore costume to help the audience distinguish between the different characters and to create a more authentic atmosphere. As Audrey, I wore a skirt and cardigan as this was the kind of thing girls wore in 1943, I choose the colour of these to be brown as I felt it would help convey to the audience that Audrey is plain and bad tempered. In Blood Brothers they also use colour and costumes effectively to show the persons character or the tone and mood of the scene. The narrator wears black and also has very dark hair; this shows the audience that he is evil.
In this essay I have looked at the similarities and differences between Blue Remembered Hills and Blood Brothers. I have learnt that even though they are very different style pieces they use many of the same techniques. I have also learnt that Dennis Potter does not write simple plays and that although at first they seem to be simple as you look at them more closely you realize that he says a lot about society and human behavior in his plays, all be it indirect in the case of Blue Remembered Hills, all of this is left open for individual interpretation. If I were to approach his work again I would research the society and culture it was set in more thoroughly so I could discover what it was he had been trying to say to the audience through the play.
