Drama portfolio work - Blood brothers, review of personal performance.

The play contained a cast of eight main characters:

Mrs Johnston (Sarah Hay) - A middle class mother of a big family who cannot afford to keep the two brothers. She is an independent caring woman, who would do anything she can to support her children.

Narrator (Philip Stewart) - The narrator has a strange essence in the play he is always on stage watching everybody on stage and comes across as a Devil figure but also as a kind stranger.

Mickey (Stephan Palfreman) - Is the son that is kept. He has a childish character who takes after his mother with his independence. As the play progresses so does Mickey's maturity. He is full confidence and can make friends easily as he grew up with a house full of people.

Eddie (Mark Hutchinson) - Is the son that was given away. He is mature and well mannered He was grown up as an only chills and so has no experience or confidence when it comes to talking or making friends with other people.

Mrs Lyons (Louise Russell) - Is a wealthy woman who cannot have children and so takes a chid off Mrs. Lyons. She is a paranoid woman he will do anything to stop Eddie from finding out the truth.

Linda (Amanda Salmon) - Is Mickey's best friend through out the play. She loves Mickey later on in the play, is not afraid to show it, she becomes best friends with Eddie, and may have secret feelings for him.

Sammy (Daniel Taylor) - Mrs. Johnston's eldest son, he has a metal plate in his head. Anyone can see that Sammy is trouble from a mile away; he is the cause for Mickey going to jail.

Mr. Lyons (Stephen Pallister) - Mrs. Lyons Husband, He wants a child more than anything and doesn't know that his wife can't get pregnant, and so in a way he puts pressure on his wife to have a child and does not know that Eddie isn't really his. He is away when his wife apparently gives birth

The general story of the play is that Mrs. Johnston marries a man and lives happily with kids; until she has too many. When he gets tired of all the children, he leaves her on her own. Not being able to cope with all the stress, she finds her self a job cleaning for Mrs Lyons. Mrs Lyons cannot have children of her own and envies Mrs. Johnston. Mrs Johnston cannot afford to look after her children when she has twins, and was forced into giving one of them to Mrs Lyons Mickey and Eddie meet by chance and become best of friends then blood brothers. When Mrs Lyon finds that Eddie and Mickey have met she moves away. When Mickey moves to the countryside, he meets Eddie again. They grow up together and live happy until Mickey goes to prison for a crime his brother Sammy committed. He then becomes ill. Finally when two people meet and find out that they are twins they die. Is it the truth or just coincidence?

The play took place on an open stage, with a large cyclorama screen that was placed at the back, which was lit with fairy lights to give the effects of city houses and factory lights. There were no curtains, and there was a small amount of floor space between the stage and the raised auditorium. Instead of the orchestra, playing at the front it was raised stage right hidden in the boxes, behind the stage set of flats.

There were different doors on the stage, the ones on stage left were poor and battered leading into council houses; this is where the Johnston family lived, the doors on stage right was hidden but the ones shown were new posh doors maybe leading into mansions. To show the Lyons house they used flying scenery; one wall flat of a house to show a living/dinning room. This also happened when the scene was in Mrs Johnston's kitchen. To show Mickey and Linda's house they rolled on another wall flat of a living room. The doors stayed on the stage for all of the play, the only time they changed is when the Johnston family moved to the countryside; they were still council but were in much better condition.

A sort of raised platform this was used by the always-watching narrator who never left the stage, to watch, to enter and exit to a wing upstairs, it led to were the orchestra were.

Only a few scenes changed throughout the play but most of the time to change the scene the stage were just striked. The biggest scene change was when the scene changed from the street houses to the countryside, the backdrop changed here also from the houses and factories of the city to the farms and fields of the countryside. This took place during the interval.

Sound and music were also used to display the emotions in each scene. The type of sound was mainly special effects for things like thunder when Mrs Lyons went insane and birds tweeting in the country scene.

The orchestra also contributed to the sound before and during the play, it was nothing too evident, which did not really give much of an impact, which is a good thing.

The Music during the play was very harsh and the pace was always fast, the songs were very hum able and catchy but I believed that the played 'Marilyn Monroe' and 'shoes upon the table' a bit too much as they started to get a bit annoying after a while

During the play, the stage was lit using foot lights and floodlights, which made it quite bright. The only times when the scene was not light was either when the effect of night was wanted or when Mrs. Lyon was going insane and flashing lights with blue gels were used, also a tree or flame was shown on the stage using a shadow.

There was a few times in which light effects were used, for example when there were blackouts to show the years gone past, flashing lights were also used to show different shops and arcades in the carnival when Linda, Mickey and Eddie were growing up. This was effective, and was an amazing contrast compared to the scene with Mrs Lyons, which had a completely different mood that was well conveyed by the lighting used in both scenes. The play would not have been as good if only the house lights were used.

The costumes in the play reflected the character and his or her personality well. When they were children Mickey wears torn shorts and T-shirt that do not fit him properly, Eddie wears shorts, a shirt and a jumper and white knee high socks that were always clean and tidy. As they get older they stop wearing shorts and start to wear jeans and jumpers when finally they grow up to show their maturity they wear jeans, shirts and blazers. Not only do the costumes show the age changes but also the difference in class; Eddie would wear designer, posh clean clothes all the way through the play while Eddie would wear standard middle class clothes

It was the first time that I saw Blood Brothers and I understood the play to a certain extent but not as fully as the other people did because I am not studying the play in school.

Although the production is a brilliant one, I thought that the actors playing the characters of Mrs. Lyons and Mrs Johnston was not thought out enough and turned out to be characterless and bland. An example of this is when Mrs Lyons appears in Mrs Johnston's home and threatens her, the struggle between the two ended up to be a bit pathetic. The characters of Mickey and Linda were a lot better, they were exciting and competent, they also were able to show their characters development well through out the play.

My favourite character in the play was Mickey. Mickey's character was the one that in my opinion was more developed, the one that stood out from the other main characters and the best acted. I also liked the way that his character gradually changed through out the play and not many actors can carry it out as well as he did. The change of Mickey's character was obvious during the play but the actors change was not. Apart from Mrs Lyon and Mrs Johnston, I believe the choice of cast was very well done.

It is my favourite play, so far because it is filled with humour, Romance, attraction and physical humour.

As a whole, I thought the audience really enjoyed the performance and I liked the way the director slipped in a few jokes.

Along with the tears, this compelling and heart-wrenching story of the Liverpool working class mum, pressured into giving away one of her newborn twins at birth so that he can have a better life, also has warmth, tenderness, love and laughter