The actual story begins with Mrs Johnstone (Lyn Paul) in normal 60s clothing and she sings Marilyn Monroe. Through this song Mrs Johnstone compares her life to Marilyn Monroe, throughout the performance. In this scene she shows that she was like Marilyn Monroe. The story at this point was quite cheerful and happy and fast. Mrs Johnstone was married but had an affair and left so she was now working in the home of Mrs Lyons (Sarah Hay) and was enjoying her job. We also see that Mrs Johnstone is a woman under a lot of pressure because you can hear the children demanding attention from within the house. This is done in a sound collage, which gives us an idea of this very effectively The children behave rather stereotypically particularly in the games they play like cowboys and Indians, which was typical in the 1960s, because many country-western films were popular during that time. We can tell Mrs Johnstone had many children because there was a large amount of washing on the line in the beginning. Mrs Johnstone discovers that she is pregnant which she believes she can cope with, but she didn’t know that she was going to have twins. Mrs Lyons who was having problems having children suggested to Mrs Johnstone that she should give her one of the twins. At this point The Narrator (who creeps around and observes) approaches the centre stage. This suggests that something significant is happening and chilling music adds to this to create tension. Mrs Lyons is dressed in rather expensive looking clothing and looks very wealthy.
I notice that the director used split-stage to show the class division. The rich side of the stage is on the stage left and the working class side is on the stage right. We know this because Mrs Lyons always came on stage from stage left, while Mrs Johnstone came on from stage right. Also the stage right looks like it is made of working class style housing, while the stage left looks as though the housing is rather majestic.
After the birth of the twins Mrs Johnstone seems very reluctant to give Mrs Lyons her child, but Mrs Lyons is reluctant to take it away. We see Mr Lyons (Stephen Pallister) as a stereotypical business man, with no time for his wife and family, but his life evolves around his business
The children have now grown up. We see Edward (Mark Hutchinson) as a boy from a rich family in a schoolboy’s uniform (grey shorts, blazer and cap) and Mickey (James Templeton), who is obviously from a lower working class family, in a pair of dirty shorts and a jumper that can be stretched over his knees. The actors seemed to be comfortable in their clothing. The costumes fit the design concept of the set, as Mickey’s mother seemed to fit into the scene perfectly as a 1960s/70s working class mother. We see that the director changed the lighting to show the change of location, when the Johnstones were relocated to the country, the director also decided to change the lighting to make it look brighter and give a fresh look to the scene. When we meet the Policeman (Grant Aylward) we see him he acts very stereotypically with the body language and the tone of voice. At the end of the scene of Mrs Lyons shouting because there were new shoes on the table, we notice that The Narrator put the shoes on the table. This has a large effect on the story but suggests that the narrator is trying to show Mrs Lyons something or that he is has some involvement with Mrs Lyons, like the Devil. It is also shows one of the main themes of the play superstition. We can see this theme of superstition through The Narrators song ‘Shoes Upon The Table’. Where things such as smashing a looking-glass, a full moon and spilling salt are all mentioned and are all symbolic of bad luck.
When we see Linda (Louise Clayton), Mickey and Edward in the park we see them as stereotypical teenagers, dressed in school uniform and sexual feelings on their minds. Also when Mickey and Edward meet again they go to hug, but then stop and act as though they resent the fact this again is stereotypical of teenage boys. When we see Sammy (Daniel Taylor) on the bus he is dressed in leather, and very “punkish”. This costume reflects the kind of clothing worn during the late 70s. Also we see the Bus Conductor (Alex Harland) as stereotypical through his body language and dialect.
In the classroom we see even more stereotypes like the Nerd, Perkins (Louis Tamone) who jumps whenever a question is asked and his costume includes a large pare of glasses, also the teacher (Grant Aylward) acts very stereotypically through his costume, dialect, body language and choice of words. We see that Grant Aylward is a very versatile character fore he can play more than one part or we can say that he is very good at multi-rolling. The word “suspended” links Edward with Mickey when they are teenagers; this shows how alike they can be even though they come from different backgrounds. For they both act rebel against their teacher.
After Mickey, Linda and Edward get older we see that the bond between Mickey and Edwards get smaller while the bond between Linda gets stronger. They look like typical adults in their 20s with Linda and Mickey, having children and Edward going to University. The play at this point becomes much slower with depression and problems taking over the plays theme. After Sammy and Mickey, commit theft Mrs Johnstone sings Marilyn Monroe again she now compares Mickey to her, for he is now taking pills just like Marilyn Monroe. The next scene happens again very quickly but it seems quite slow because of the depression Mickey goes through, and the problem Linda has coping with the family. She hides his pills and he becomes desperate looking for them, Linda goes through a lot of pain. Her emotion was shown clearly hear, which shows she’s a very able actress. I would have to praise her, for her acting ability at this point.
The Play’s pace suddenly becomes much faster when Mickey finds out that Edward and Linda are sleeping together, he rushes to the council chambers where Edward is working. We see when Mickey rushes that the Narrator has a smile of satisfaction on his face when he sings to Madman/shoes upon the table. This suggests to me that he is the Devil and he has been plotting the death. Before Mickey kills Edward, Mrs Johnstone tells them they are brothers. It was shocking the way she said it came totally out of the blue for them both and then the death. This shocked me and made me feel the strongest emotion I have ever felt from a motion picture or play. At the end we see very slowly that Mrs Johnstone kisses both the twins and Mr Lyons places a coat over Edward’s dead body and Mrs Lyons stands there and The Narrator passes the “blood” money he had picked up which Mrs Johnstone wouldn’t collect from Mrs Lyons earlier in the play, as though he is blaming the death all on Mrs Lyons.
The Narrator is “The Devil” or Fate. For he leads the proceedings of the play it is as though he controls the characters, for example when the knife gets picked up in the confrontation between Mrs Lyons and Mrs Johnstone. He looks at it before any other character does. It looks to me he is telling Mrs Lyons what to do, he always approaches her on set when the truth is close to come out or something bad happens. I think the director did this to show The Narrators power and influence over Mrs Lyons. This supports the idea of him being fate or ‘The Devil’
When Mrs Lyons tries to pay Mrs Johnstone off, Mrs Johnstone throws the money back, so then the Narrator picks up the money and pockets it. After the death of the twins he gives the money back to Mrs Lyons. I think the director did this to symbolise that the money has no value compared to a human life. We can see that The Narrator has a close relationship with Mrs Lyons. When the scene changes to Mr/Mrs Lyons’ Conversation we see that The Narrator placed the new shoes upon the table, not Mr Lyons whom Mrs Lyons shouted at for being bad Luck. The Narrator strolls round the stage, very relaxed only looking as though something’s important if the truth is close or something bad is happening. He has a smile of satisfaction when Mickey goes mad. This is why I think that he is ‘The Devil’.
After seeing this performance, I must say it is one the most enjoyable experiences of my life. The acting was fantastic, so was the plot, the costumes, the choreography and the music. I must say that Blood Brothers can not have any improvement. The whole story shows that:
Blood Is Thicker Than Water
I also saw another performance called LOOT at the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, it was very different from Blood Brothers, for it used a modern, contemporary minimalist set, in contrast to the Blood Brothers set, which was very baroque set. The Blood Brothers stage used a proscenium-arch stage, but LOOT used arena stage. I sat at the very front so it was very easy to see all the characters facial expressions and hear their voices very clearly. On the stage was a morbid set, which included a dummy in a coffin, a pair of green shoes and a pair of red shoes and a slightly misshaped cross.
The performance began with a music by the ‘Sex Pistols’, which represented the late 70s and early 80s, with the arrival of an punk dressed teen, a man in an electric wheelchair, a nurse with a rose in her mouth and a policeman who looks rather insane. The nurse turns out to be rather eccentric in character.
In the play we see that ‘Ave Maria’ is played when the coffin is shown, which is typical of a catholic funeral. We also see that ‘Tubular Bells’ is played when the grave is dug up. This music was used in the exorcist who was released in the 70s, which also links in with the theme of anarchy. Inspector Meadows wears a red armband and the policeman who acts insane, are both symbolic of anarchy. This is to suggest that the police are corrupt and the director’s note also quotes ‘Anarchism is a game at which the police can beat you’. So it is obvious of what the director’s intension was.
After seeing both performances I can say that I like them both, but there can be very little comparison between them because they’re both so very different. The only things that both have in common is the time period and the content of Catholicism, for LOOT uses ‘Ave Maria’ and Blood Brothers shows use of a rosary. Some of the differences are the content, the theme, the type of stage, the type of set etc, but most importantly the message at the end, Blood Brothers was to show that Blood is thicker than water, while LOOT had none because it was about anarchy and disorder.
