During the rehearsal process I have adapted and developed the character of Edward Lyons. Within our separate groups we acted out selected scenes and developed them to make an effective piece which hopefully impressed the class as the audience. As a group we worked together and encouraged each other in order to produce an organised, powerful piece of drama.
After learning my lines, I found it easier to concentrate on my body language and really get a feel for my character. For example, in order to get the point across that I play an upper class character, I spoke in a Received Pronunciation voice focusing on sounding out every letter. Also, I imagined the character of Eddie to be quite intelligent, although completely oblivious to the importance of certain things e.g. money. In performing his character I kept this in mind and tried to use this when acting on stage. For example, when Mickey swears, I tried to show - through facial expressions and voice change - how shocked the character of Eddie would be.
We also looked at a play called Kidsplay written by John Lee, which had a very different style compared with Blood Brothers. Even though there was an element of comedy in both plays, Kidsplay was quite slow to move from scene to scene and also had quite a childish humour. In comparison to ‘Blood Brothers,’ Kidsplay centred its attention on many children of the same age, all doing what children do, whereas Blood Brothers demonstrated a powerful storyline using different stages of two very different lives. This was very effective and showed a great maturity of writing, while Kidsplay did not. I did not enjoy Kidsplay as much as Blood Brothers, because I feel that I can not connect or empathise with the characters in Kidsplay as much as those in Blood Brothers.
Because both plays were written at the same time, there are ome common themes linking them both. For example, they both contain humour; although the writers do deliver this humour in contrasting, yet effective ways. Another common theme is that they both show contrast between upper class and middle class people. In Kidsplay the children were of a young age, and so there language and vocabulary used was limited, whereas compared to Blood Brothers the audience can really see the characters develop as the play progresses. A further contrasting theme is the fact that in Blood Brothers there appears to be a lot of emotions and feelings shown, but in ‘ Kidsplay’ I do not feel as if the audience really gets to know the characters well enough to empathise with them.
Blood Brothers is a well written, intellectual play with a strong storyline; Kidsplay is limited to the language used and it appears to be quite slow paced. This could make the audience lose interest in what is happening - which is never a good thing - where as with Blood Brothers the storyline jumps years, keeping up a quick pace and in effect, keeping the audiences’ attention. I believe this to be a key difference between the plays. In my opinion there are few connections between the plays. The main one that stands out to me is the fact that they are both based on the lives’ of children and, because of this some of the qualities of the characters within the plays are quite similar. I think that compared to Kidsplay I much preferred Blood Brothers and this is because I felt as if I can relate to characters in Blood Brothers more than those in Kidsplay. Also I much more enjoyed playing the challenging role of Eddie.
