Will they ever meet again?
MICKEY rings the doorbell on EDDIE’S old house. A WOMAN answers the door.
Woman: Can I help you young man
Mickey: Ye, is um… Eddie in?
Woman: Eddie? I am afraid I do not know any body by that name.
Mickey: Oh!… (In a posh voice) is Edward at home
Woman: No. Goodbye
Mickey: Has Eddie moved away?
Woman: Well he must have.
Mickey: D’y know where he lives now?
Woman: Pardon
Mickey: See I’ve been saving up some money (he looks in his pocket and holds some coins out, he looks very happy) I could go and see him… on the bus, where does he live?
Woman: I have told you, I do not know where he lives.
Mickey: Don’t be tight!
Woman: Sorry goodbye. (She begins to close the door)
Mickey: C’mon, were blood brothers
Woman: The family that previously lived here has moved to the countryside. That is all I know. Good day. (She slams the door)
A fresnel spotlight pans on Mickey as all other lights fade. Mickey moves centre stage and begins to sing.
Two chairs are placed back to back centre, top stage.
Mickey (Singing): No kids out on the street today,
You could be living on the moon.
Gonna be a long long long Sunday afternoon.
Just killing time and kicking cans around,
Trying to remember jokes I knew.
I tell them to myself,
But there not funny, ‘cus I found,
Its gonna be a long long long Sunday afternoon.
On the other side of the stage a spotlight, lights EDDIE, bored and alone. He appears so we do not know whether he is real or in MICKEYS mind.
BOTH sit back to back on chairs
My blood brother had sweets to share,
Knew every word in the dictionary,
He was clean and tidy from Monday to Friday
I wish I could be like,
Be cleaver and smart like,
BOTH standing up looking at the audience, unaware of each other
Mickey:
(Together) My blood brother
Eddie:
FLASH BACK. (Dreamy music link)
(Dreamy music link)
Mickey: You know, the ‘F’ word. (Whispers it in Eddies ear)
Eddie: Fantastic. When I get home, I shall look it up the dictionary.
Mickey: In the what?
Eddie: It the dictionary. Don’t you know what a dictionary is?
Mickey: ‘Course I do. It’s a thingy isn’t it?
Eddie: A book which tells you the meanings of words.
Mickey: Yeh. I know.
Eddie: Will you be my best friend?
Mickey: Yeh. Yeh if you want to.
(Dreamy music link)
They BOTH sit back down
Eddie: My blood brother could swear like a bastard,
(Together) My blood brother
Eddie:
BACK INTO ACT II/ix
Commentary
My idea is based on an open stage production with a minimum of property and furniture. The scene changes should flow along smoothly. Two areas are semi-permanent, the Lyons house and the Johnston house on either side of the stage. The area between the two houses will be for all exterior acts.
As we have seen the play starts in Liverpool where hard-up Mrs Johnston has to give her baby away to the affluent Mrs Lyons because she cannot afford to bring up her child. Mickey the brother raised in poverty meets his prosperous brother, Eddie and they become friends but neither knows of their secrete relationship. When Mrs Lyons realises they have become blood brothers she decides that their family should move away to cease their relationship. This is where I have added my extra scene
My scene shows the last time Eddie saw Mickey and Mickey realising he is alone. Then I used a cross cutting scene to show Eddie missing Mickey. My scene makes acts II and III make more sense.
I have added two extra scenes, a shot scene involving Mickey Sammy and Eddie. In this scene, we see the aggressive temper of Mickey’s older brother, Sammy who is nearly ten. They are fighting relates to Mickey’s monologue in II/i. Eddie is already on stage when Mickey is dragged on stage by Sammy. This keeps cumbersome scene changes to a minimum, which stays constant to Willy Russell’s productions. In this scene, Sammy and Eddie show their class difference. Eddie friendly and formal but Sammy calls him a “Poshy” and I abusive to him He chases him off stage, that is their exit.
Mickey is left alone on stage for the next scene he calls to see Eddie, enquiring why he came to see him earlier. A woman, unfamiliar to Mickey opens the door she claims not to know Eddie. He then says, “(in a posh voice) is Edward at home?” this shows the class differences between Mickey and the woman living at the Lyons old house, “up by the park” or “up the other end, near the big houses” as Mickey said in II/i. In this conversation the woman is much more polite that Mickey. Mickey then becomes very happy because he realises he has some money. Therefor he can afford to catch a bus to see Eddie at his new house. The only problem is that he does not know where Eddie now lives. This is a good example of Mickey’s up bringing, and relates to contemporary issues of the time that Willy Russell wrote the play. In 1980 Liverpool, under the rule of Margaret Thatcher Liver pool was a very deprived place. In I/ii Mrs Johnson could not afford to pay the milkman, “look, honest, I will pay you next week” This is one example out of many of Russell’s examples of poverty in Liverpool.
Mickey still cannot visit Eddie due to he dose not know where Eddie lives. After persevering with the Woman she becomes infuriated and slams the door. The only thing that Mickey distinguishes from the woman was that Eddie lived in the countryside.
Again, Mickey is alone on stage, feeling lonely and abandoned. I have added a singing monologue this is an unrealistic aspect of the production but we hear Mickey’s thoughts through singing this makes the production interesting and piquant. It is a good way of showing Mickeys feelings because he is portrayed as a colloquial-speaking wastrel so this shows the audience another side of him.
As Mickey is singing with only a fresnel spotlight, this only has a small direct spill allowing Eddie an inconspicuous entrance.
After Mickey sings he then recites a poem about Eddie followed by a flashback to a previous scene- II/ii. The poem ends with both Mickey and Eddie saying “My blood Brother”. After the flashback, Mickey and Eddie are again sat back to back. Then Eddie recites a poem about Mickey. This poem highlights how different they are. Mickey naturally picks up his chair and walks off leaving Eddie on stage for the next scene.
I have used the extremely versatile dramatic convention of flashbacks for two main reasons: It adds to Mickey’s maybe imaginative/emotional state due to the audience do not know if Eddie is a figment of Mickey’s imagination. It also reminds the audience of how the boys used to play; such as in II/vi when a policewoman caught Mickey, Eddie and Linda as they were about to throw stones through a window. In this section, I have used my dramatic knowledge to add a dramatic effect called cross cutting. This is where Mickey sings and is unaware of Eddie, on the other half of the stage. Likewise Eddie is unaware of Mickey until the flashback, then when they sit back to back, they are unaware of each other. This is also another unrealistic aspect in the plot. I feel it is good to have a range of realistic/unrealistic moments, to follow in the lines of Russell. An example of this is the first scene when she is singing about her life but then it resumes into normal conversation, with the milkman.
In my first added scene, I involve Sammy. I was unsure about this because he is not in the rest of the plot. It might be that Willy Russell did not wish to involve Sammy, consequently I am going against Russell’s ideas. I feel Sammy’s involvement enhances the scene and it would not work without him. Using Sammy, Mickey and Eddie I show the differences of the three ‘brothers’ Sammy and Mickey, who were raised in squalor, speak colloquially and seam to be uneducated. As we see that later they grow up to be unemployed and antagonistic to officialdom. Where as Eddie ages to become a councillor and factory manager, making him everything Sammy and Mickey are not.
My insert of narration is an unrealistic which is constant throughout the whole production. Some of Russell’s narration exerts come at the end or beginning of a scene, anticipating the future but also relating to the past. A line in my narration is “The police have been” this recalls act II/vii when the policewoman visited each mother warning them of there sons behaviour. Then I anticipate the future asking, “will they ever meet again?” This leaves the audience in suspense, also contemplating what Mrs Lyons said in act I/viii, “If either twin learns he is one of a pair they shall both die immediately”. These episodes influence the audience to thinking their own ending before it happens. The rhyme in my narration highlights words and changes the pace of the plot. The repetition of “devil” creates a scary effect of tension and suspense. All these factors help the audience, they remember the previous events and anticipate what will happen.
Overall, I feel my scenes fit the plot well and they help the audience understand the play in an enhanced form, which involves Mickey and Eddies reunion, Eddies success, Mickey’s hard look and the death of the “Blood Brothers”.
By Oliver Twigg 10HE
