As well as being an enthralling play it also tackles some hard social and moral issues. I feel that Willy Russell must be a very socialist person or has a great understanding to the working classes as I feel the main issue this play raises is class. The characters of Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons are a good contrast, almost an antithesis both in class and personality. Throughout the play Russell puts the audience under the impression that the upper classes always have the upper hand, adding little sequences to influence this such as: when Micky and Eddie are apprehended by a policeman. He is very polite, friendly and almost apologetic towards Mr and Mrs Lyons whereas he is the complete opposite with Mrs Johnston, insulting and threatening her and her family. Ironically at the start of the play, although the Johnstones are very much living ‘on the breadline’, they begin the play very cheerfully, compared to the Lyons who never seem content.
The play is based almost entirely on this philosophy as Micky’s life gradually turns into a living hell and although Eddie is not happy towards the end of the play he is a lot better off than Micky even though Eddie may have worked harder as an adult. It is also very ironic how Mrs Lyons has more money than she knows what to do with and yet can never be happy, as she is unable to have children. On the other hand Mrs Johnston has more children than she knows what to do with and is scraping a living to try and provide for them.
There are several other issues running throughout the play, most of which are based around superstition: fate, luck, truth, lies etc. The whole play is based on the superstition that if Mickey and Eddie discover they are brothers they will die, which of course they do. This almost drives Mrs Lyons insane and throughout the play does whatever’s within her power to stop Eddie finding out. She even tries to kill Mrs Johnstone, which is a great scene and is a perfect example of the conflict in the play.
There are many forms of conflict in ‘Blood Brothers’, physical, verbal, overt and covert, which is what makes the play so tense. When Mrs Lyons argues with Mrs Johnstone just preceding Mrs Lyons attack with a knife there is fantastic verbal conflict which builds up the tension by using short, sharp lines like “Don’t lie!” during their very gripping argument. Mrs Lyon’s attempted stabbing on Mrs Johnstone releases this tension; this is something that Russell does a lot in this play; release tension in one swift moment which has builds up over the preceding scenes. This is also physical and overt conflict as it is meant to be seen, much like the final scene when the shootings take place (also an example of sudden tension release).
Another great way that Russell builds suspense is repeating techniques and images. There are many throughout the play such as the moody and intimidating lighting that mirrored Mrs Lyons emotions in her panicky and edgy moments on stage. The appearance of a mysterious narrator is a good repetitious devise; he not only sets the scene but always adds very philosophical and meaningful interpretative verses that really make you think about the play and see it from a new perspective. Reoccurring songs and verse give the audience a sense of familiarity and relationship towards the character or situation, for instance as Mrs Johnstone tells her story at the beginning of the play she sings:
“Like Marilyn Monroe, and we went dancin’…”
This song is appears again several times in the play and as a result although Mrs Johnstone is not a main character you feel as close to her as Mickey and Eddie.
Guns also have a role in building up the tension in the play. It starts of with the children pretending to use guns as children playing ‘cowboys and Indians’ and progressing to the actual weapon, which is eventually the cause of their deaths. This, partnered with the other tension raising techniques, really helps for an extremely climatic finish.
I was very impressed with the way I saw the characters played when I went to see ‘Blood Brothers’ performed at the Phoenix Theatre in London. Even though they used the same actors to play the characters over a period of around 30 years I had no trouble seeing a grown man play a young adolescent boy. For example, when Mickey was being played as a small child the actor did several things to make the audience feel comfortable with him as a toddler. His body language was very flamboyant, energetic and fidgety and his pronunciation of words was very lazy and clumsy. All the rest of his movements, gestures etc. were very exaggerated and defined. As Mickey’s character grew older his body language seemed to calm down and the way he spoke became more controlled and confident. The way the actors continually had to change the behaviour of their character to suit their age must have been very challenging, but it is very effective allowing the audience to feel they know the characters better, that they have seen them ‘grow up’ in the true sense. Seeing their remarkable performances made me now approach each character I come across in my drama in a different way and has really improved my performances.
The Orchestra and music really helped with my understanding of the play and the upbeat, fast pace of ‘Blood Brothers’ is perfect for a composer to work his magic on. The music brought the play to life and really turned up the heat during tense and dramatic moments giving the play real atmosphere and pulling you to the edge of your seat in the audience. A perfect example of this is when excitement is created by the sounds of a heartbeat rising to a crescendo. Throughout the play the Orchestra was constantly slightly visible on stage and I was curious as to why this was, so I did some research to see if it had any significance to the play. This technique of a visible Orchestra has been used in the Theatre for many years and is there to constantly remind the audience that they are watching a play. I can definitely see why Russell chose to use this technique. ‘Blood Brothers’ touches some rather spooky subjects like fate and superstition and with the play being so easy to relate to as it is local, modern and very cleverly written the audience could get overly wrapped up in the spiritual side of the play.
Russell showing us the end of the play as an opening sequence is an ingenious idea. It leaves so many questions open in your mind before the play has even begun; this way the tension is automatically very high when the play starts. The audience is instantly hooked when they learn the two main characters die before they have even been introduced to them leaves the audience anticipating throughout the whole play. They want to know how it was that twin brothers died on the same day at the same time? What circumstances befell them and brought them to this? How is the mother to blame? …And the list goes on.
‘Blood Brothers’ is a fantastically well written play; Willy Russell really knows how to sustain an audience’s attention and keep them captivated. This play really involves the audience with the characters due to the effectiveness of Russell’s writing and the direction of the play and we find it very easy to empathise with the emotions experienced by the characters, which makes us care about what happens to them. Russell and ‘Blood Brothers’ are highly successful at building up dramatic tension and the ending is both shocking and thought provoking.
