Another character that was very convincing was Mrs Lyons. She was very wealthy, well spoken, and clearly from the middle or upper class. This was shown through her voice and language. She spoke using formal English. For example she says in her first scene “I’m finding it rather large at present”. She uses a ‘posh’ accent throughout the play. Her costumes demonstrate that she is wealthy and quite conservative. She wears court shoes, a pearl necklace, and has a cardigan draped over her shoulders. She also appears very neat and tidy. Body language plays a vital role in showing her character too. She walks confidently, with her shoulders back and her head up, with perfect posture. This demonstrates that she has great pride and feels she is not beneath anybody. I think that because of this she was one of the strongest characters.
In the play, there are a number scenes that deal with the relationships and conflict between the characters; therefore many scenes required a lot of emotion from the actors. Mrs. Johnstone displays emotion, successfully throughout the play. In a scene with her and Edward she talks to him about moving and gives him her necklace. She demonstrates the love she has for him though voice, and facial expressions. The actress smiles gently, and constantly looks at Edward with big, widen eyes. Her voice was also gentle, quite high, and she speaks to him slowly and calmly. She also shows that she is upset that Edward is moving by occasionally looking down. This encourages sympathy from the audience.
In the last scene, Mickey demonstrates that he is frustrated, upset and furious. This actor is required to show this and he builds up tension right until he shoots Edward. He displays his anger through shouting and screaming at Edward and his frustration shown through him holding his head with his hands. The way he builds up tension is by first talking quietly, then shouting. He also waves the gun about as if he was going to shoot Edward many times, but he doesn’t. When he does actually shoot him, the gun is down and he suddenly brings it up, which was unexpected and so the shocked the audience. In both scenes that have been described, the actors successfully capture the audience through their convincing emotions and actions.
The actors are not the only factor that contributes to the success of the play. The setting, lighting, effects, music and the staging of the performance are also important. This is because it can build up tension, highlight a character’s emotion or simply display where a scene is located. In the play, there were two different backgrounds, which showed where the play was located. There was a city background, which had buildings on it and a countryside background, which had trees and a field picture. Both backgrounds were clear and it made it easier to keep up with the story line. There was also rows of houses and a poor house and rich house. The poor house were where the Johnstones lived and the rich were where the Lyons lived. This helped me understand further, the huge difference between the upbringing of Mickey and Edward. The lighting added to the tension as when something serious was going to happen there would be bright lights, when anger was shown from Mickey there was red lights and when the narrator was saying things secretly and coldly there would be low, dark lighting. The music added to the atmosphere in the play. There was mainly music when there was a sad part of the play. Trumpets usually played at the end of a scene when something upsetting had happened to one of the characters. I personally felt the music was the weakest aspect of the play as trumpets are not the most appropriate instruments to highlight a negative scene. I think violins would be more suited to the scene sad scenes. In my opinion the staging of Blood Brothers was very successful as it informed the audience, added atmosphere and built tension.
The main themes that were displayed in Blood Brothers were betrayal, and the injustice of a having a class system. Betrayal was demonstrated the most as it came from the storyline of both Edward and Mickey being betrayed by their mothers, and Mickey thinking that Edward betrayed him by having ‘an affair’ with Linda. The play illustrated the drastic consequences that betrayal can cause and has an obvious message, which is that if something deceitful has happened then it will never be covered up forever. The other issue that was explored was the class system, and showed how being in different classes can affect a person’s life dramatically. This is shown through Mickey and Edwards’s very different lives, even though they were twins and were genetically identical. The play explores how Mickey has a profound lack of opportunities, as he is from the lower class and how Edward doesn’t have to struggle in life because he is from a higher class. I was very sympathetic towards Mrs Johnstone, especially when she almost dreamt of having enough food to feed herself and her children. Watching the play made me realise truly how the social class system was very unjust.
From the performance I feel that I have gained a higher understanding of the importance of using dramatic techniques. I now realise how effective flash-forwards, and having a narrator can be to demonstrating quite a complex story line. I have also learnt that flash-forwards also capture the audience’s attention immediately and makes them wanting to know more. I think a very strong aspect of the performance was the drastic contrasts in scenes from comedy to tragedy. I have learnt that the contrast can be integrated in a play realistically and keeps the audience interested as they do not no what mood to expect next. In my opinion, the best part of the play was in the last scene where the twins find out that they are twins. This is because it captured my full attention, and contained the most tension and suspense. The main differences between seeing the play and reading it was that obviously we couldn’t it as musical because we couldn’t sing the songs. Also reading it just told me the story line however seeing it brought out the true emotion, tension and atmosphere which is contained in Blood Brothers.
