Evaluation of a live theatre performance

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Evaluation

Evaluation of Live Theatre Performance

On the 29th of January we went to the Phoenix Theatre in the West End to watch the matinee performance of ‘Blood Brothers’ by Willy Russell. ‘Blood Brothers’ is the story of a two twins born to a destitute mother, Mrs. Johnston, who is deceived into giving one of the twins to a woman who is barren and cannot have children of her own, Mrs. Lyons. The birth mother gets cold feet and goes to get here child back however when she gets there the desperate surrogate makes up a superstition, as she knows that the birth mother is highly superstitious, this scares the birth mother who allows the surrogate to keep the child. The children grow up in their respective families blissfully oblivious to the existence of the other brother. However the boys, for that is what they are, somehow end up together and become best of friends and even go as far as becoming blood brothers as they were born on exactly the same day, nonetheless they are too innocent too realize that the other is his twin, the young boys grow up together and become young men. The young men realize that the hierarchy becomes more distinctive as they age and as Edward’s, the twin that was given away, surrogate mother is married to a well off businessman Edwards’s is a middle class family whilst contrarily Mickey is from the working class as his father left his mother years ago and so Mrs. Johnston, Mickey and Edward’s birth mother has been forced to provide money for her children this is the reason she agreed to give Edward away she hoped he would have a better life with Mrs. Lyons. The brothers are from very different backgrounds and as their differences in the status quo become more pronounced with maturity, a rift forms between them, when Edward goes off to university. Mickey has completely changed when Edward returns, as he is worried about Linda, his childhood sweetheart to whom he is now married, and his unborn baby and how he will provide for them. Linda goes to Edward because she knows he is a well-off businessman like his father now, she asks him for help economically and so he provides a job for Mickey however Mickey learns of what has transpired and becomes paranoid he feels that Edward will try to steal his life as it was him who gave it to him in the first place and so he is driven to the point where he goes to kill his brother however unbeknownst to him Linda has told Mrs. Johnston that Mickey is going to kill his twin and so she rushes to Edwards house where she finds Mickey with a gun about to kill Edward, She rushes in and reveals their true relationship. Meanwhile the police is alerted to the threat on Edwards life and as he is rich his life is very important and so they rush to his rescue and just as the truth is divulged Mickey is shot by a sharpshooter employed by the police and as he dies his gun goes off as well, killing Edward in the process. There are many themes explored in the play, these include family, relationships, social class and status, superstition and fate, power, jealousy and Nature vs. Nature. The play is set in the 60’s through to the early 80’s when social status was of immense importance, also there was a recession occurring at the time and those who were poor were getting poorer. The play is a musical which is mainly realistic but there are some parts that are non-naturalistic, for example during the beginning the twins are laid out dead on stretchers, also when the children are playing with the air gun and shooting “Indians”.

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The play is performed on a proscenium arch stage. The most effective set for me was when Mickey, Eddie and Linda go to the fair ground, the lights and sign which descend from the flies create a realistic carnival atmosphere. Furthermore the flats are changed to depict funfair rides and carnival games. The scene changes throughout the performance were conspicuous and smooth so that people noticed them but it didn’t interfere with the play, and the fact that there were no blackouts and the curtain only came down once for the intermission made the scene changes more impressive as we ...

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