A review of the production of Blood Brothers

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A review of the production of Blood Brothers

     In year 10 we went to see the musical Blood Brothers by Willy Russell. We saw the play at the New Wimbledon Theatre on the 2nd of November 2006. It is a story about two twin brothers who are separated at birth but find each other again at aged 7. It shows the standard of living between the upper and working class of Liverpool in the 1960s onwards. The many characters in the play are: Mrs Johnstone (the working class mum), Mickey (working class twin), Sammy (brother of Mickey), Mr and Mrs Lyons (upper class parents) Eddie (upper class twin), Linda (friend of both twins) and the Narrator who helps tell the story throughout the play. It has many unexpected surprises along the way to keep in you interested.

     In the play the playwrite Willy Russell explored many themes and issues: class and expectations, unemployment and crime, superstition, loyalty and trust. The twins were altered by their different upbringings. Both went to separate schools, Eddie to a boarding school and Mickey to a state school. Eddies attire at school was a very strict uniform, tie up to the top button, socks to his knees, shoes polished and overall looking very smart. Mickey’s uniform was scruffy and dirty the total opposite of Eddies. They were treated differently by society by a policeman. Both of the brothers were throwing stones when a policeman caught them and took them home. He had a drink at the Lyons’ house and advised docking Eddie’s pocket money for a while as a punishment. Whereas at the Johnston’s he told Mickey off and saying that its not a joke throwing stones and that he could be fined next time.  The policeman only treated them both differently because of their background, purely because of their money. Mrs Johnstone worked for Mrs Lyons as a cleaner, which also shows the class and status of the two families. Mickey ended up being involved in crime because of his family and background. Sammy was involved in crime already and dragged Mickey in it to help him, as he knew he was unemployed and looking for and job for money to support his family. From the “shoes on the table” to Mrs Lyons and Mrs Johnstone swearing on the bible, superstition had a huge effect on the lives of the main characters. Mrs Lyons wasn’t superstitious at the beginning of the play at the “shoes on the table” song, but as the play carried on she began to feel more and more paranoid and guilty of what was going to happen in the future. She felt this, as she believed the superstition that twins will die if separated. This helped her to become guilty which ate away at her and in time she becomes mentally ill because of this. The lives of the brothers were based on a lie. They were twins more than friends of what they thought they were. Towards the end of the play Mrs Lyons tapped Mickey on the shoulder and showed him Linda and Eddie standing and talking together. This planted a seed in his head thinking that they were having an affair, which they weren’t. This made Mickey distrust Eddie and Linda even though they were being loyal to him. Mrs Lyons didn’t trust Mrs Johnstone as she made her swear on the bible when she gave away her unborn child, so she couldn’t go back on her word. Mrs Lyons betrayed her husbands trust, Mr Lyons, as she lied and said that Eddie was his son. There were four couples in the play, Mr and Mrs Lyons, Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons, Mickey and Eddie and Mickey and Linda with none of them trusting each other. There was a break down in families no matter what class and status you had.

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     Lots of different drama forms and styles of theatre were used in the production. These included naturalistic acting, musical drama, direct address and physical theatre. Naturalistic acting is very realistic and believable. An example of this being used on the play is the drug scene between Linda and Mickey in the kitchen. Musical drama is the songs and music used throughout the production. The song “ Marilyn Monroe” was used to help tell the story, changing the meaning of “dancing” to fit what was happening. Direct address was when the Narrator spoke lines directly to the audience to ...

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