Discuss the influences on the lives of Mickey and Eddie in Blood Brothers.
Blood brothers Discuss the influences on the lives of Mickey and Eddie in Blood Brothers. Eddie and Mickey were born from the same mother Mrs. Johnston, but they have extremely different lives. They were identical twins; they look exactly the same. But Mrs. Lyons separated them and made them have a different life. From then on, one of them, Mickey stayed with Mrs. Johnston lives in a big, poor family and the other one who was taken by Mrs. Lyons became very rich and got everything. They have been in a different world because of many factors surrounding them to rich or poor from the moment they have been born. I think the most influential factors are the family they have got and the family classes different. The different kind and level of education they have got did also influence them much. Also, the religion of the family is one of the factors that affect the life of the child as well. Different thing has different amount of influence to Mickey and Eddie's life. I am going to discuss the factors one by one. The social context is messy at the time between late 70s and early 80s that the play was set. It is called recession. Margaret Thatcher is the Prime Minister; she encouraged people to make lots of money. As a result, the rich people in middle or upper class can earn much money but the poor people in working class lost their jobs. Life is very hard for working class, as
Compare the structure and setting Of the two short stories 'The Half Brothers' By Elizabeth Gaskall and 'The Darkness Out There' by Penelope Lively.
Compare the structure and setting Of the two short stories 'The Half Brothers' By Elizabeth Gaskall and 'The Darkness Out There' by Penelope Lively. In each story the narrative tension Builds to a distressingly inevitable climax. Discuss how this is achieved and its effect Upon the reader. "The Darkness Out There" is a short story set around three main characters. It begins with a girl called Sandra who is on her way to go and help the old Mrs Rutter with her housework. On her way, she comes across Kerry, a young lad who also, is on his way to visit the old woman to help out around the garden. They are both in a club known as the Good Neighbours, which is run to help elderly people in the community with their household work. The two ask her whether she knows about the local wood, which looked ghostly, and was well known by all the locals to be haunted. The friendly atmosphere soon changes towards the end when Mrs Rutter tells the Kerry and Sandra what she experienced in the war. The tale shocked the two into getting up and leaving a little quicker than they would have done normally. "Half-Brothers" is the second story we looked at. It starts by someone telling a tale of his mother. It is told how her husband and first daughter died and tells of the grief she suffered, but it does this in a very detached way and the reader is unable to feel any real pity
How Does Willy Russell Maintain The Audiences Interest Throughout Blood Brothers When We Are Told The Ending In The Prologue?
How Does Willy Russell Maintain The Audiences Interest Throughout Blood Brothers When We Are Told The Ending In The Prologue? "Blood Brothers" is set in Liverpool in the early eighties. The play follows the life of two main characters: Eddie Lyons and Mickey Johnstone. In this play the two main characters are biological twin brothers, who are separated at birth due to the fact that their mother, Mrs Johnstone, cannot afford to bring them both up since she already has seven children and can barely support her family. So Mrs Lyons offers that she adopt one to her because she is too infertile to have her own, and she desperately wants a child. Reluctantly Mrs Johnstone agrees and when they are born one is passed over to Mrs Lyons, bearing in mind that her husband is away for nine months and does not know she is adopting. He disagrees with this approach because he feels the child is not his own. So Mrs Lyons pretends to be pregnant and when he returns says that it is theirs. The boys grow up, one in a working class family the other in a middle class, Eddie is considerably more well off than Mickey. Though the boys have very different upbringings and personalities they both yearn to be like one another, this is shown in the song "My Friend." There is a bond between the boys yet they are unaware of it. Their lives are quite parallel, the same events are happening at relatively the
Blood Brothers by Willy Russell - Analysis of a Performance
Blood Brothers by Willy Russell Cast Mrs Johnstone Gillian Kirkpatrick Narrator Philip Sterwart Mickey Darren Morfitt Eddie Andrew Langtree Mrs Lyons Amanda Minihan Linda Ruth Gibson Sammy Daniel Taylor Mr Lyons Stephen Pallister Police/Teacher Jason Griffiths Donna Marie/Miss Jones Nikki Davis-Jones Perkins David Bingham Neighbour Sean Jones Brenda Linda Nolan Bus Conductor Mark Lawson Setting the Scene This Musical is set in Liverpool. It is about a working class mum (Mrs Johnstone) who gives away one of her new born twins to her employer so that she can lead a better life. The employer Mrs Lyons takes on one of the babies at birth and brings the baby up as one of her own with her husband. Mrs Johnstone is always behind on her bills and is always in debt with the tax man, But Mrs Lyons is rich and can bring up the son with everything he needs. The boys grow up and as they get older they are still none the wiser. When they were about 7 they meet in the street and find out that they were born on the same day and year. They then make a pack to be blood brothers. The two boys Mickey and Eddie soon find out that they will soon be split up and may never see each other again. When Mrs Lyons moves she takes Eddie with her, they go to live in the countryside. Not knowing were the Lyons have gone Mrs Johnstone is evicted out of her house so
Blood Brothers. In the play we see that Mrs Johnstones life totally contrasts with Mrs Lyons life, we see this in many different ways during the play,
Blood Brothers Essay The play, Blood Brothers written by Willy Russell was set in Liverpool, Liverpool had been home to one of the highest levels of unemployment within the developed world. The play was set in the 1960's. Russell wrote it at this time because there was low morale and a lot of unemployment. Willy Russell set it at that time because there was a big difference between upper class and the working class. This affects our reading of the play because we feel sorry for the Johnstone family. We feel sorry for mrs Johnstone because she is struggling to keep up with payments for basic needs. At the beginning of the play we are introduced to the character Mrs Johnstone. "She is aged thirty but looks more like fifty" This illustrates how difficult her life has been. Immediately we, the audience feel sympathy for her. In the song " Marilyn Monroe" we see how her life was when she young. We realise she has been abandoned by her husband and sympathise that she has, "seven hungry mouths to feed" and no support from anyone. She is struggling to keep up with payments for basic needs such as milk, we feel sorry for her because the milk man is stubborn and arrogant, we see this when he says "no money, no milk" This shows us that the milk man has no sympathy and is not being very understanding towards Mrs Johnstone's situation. To earn some money Mrs Johnstone the house of Mrs
In this case I developed my section of the script (pages 70-71) in a group of two, where we made choices and decisions together to make our performance stronger
Development The 'development' process in drama is where as an actor or director a person looks, in depth, at the meaning of the plot, the feelings created by this and the stage directions and uses or implements these in his or her own dictation of the scene to his or her own taste and liking. Development can also be achieved in groups where, as diplomacy, we can decide on which aspects of the script we wish to implement and which stage directions we also wish to implement or create so as to better perform a section, or whole, of a play in the surroundings and set provided. In this case I developed my section of the script (pages 70-71) in a group of two, where we made choices and decisions together to make our performance stronger and to make the performance work and flow more easily. Shortly after we began to rehearse, we decided that it would be better if the actor playing 'Mickey' in the section, which was myself, began the scene sitting, so that we could add levels into the performance and so that the mood of Mickey and the entire scene came across as a contrast between the joy of Edward and the depression of Mickey. Another reason we chose to add levels to the performance (from the beginning) was so that we could show the difference in class between Mickey and Edward. We had no costumes so we were forced to show the upset and depression of Mickey purely with
For my Drama Assessment I have chosen to study 'Blood Brothers' by Willy Russell.
Blood Brothers For my Drama Assessment I have chosen to study 'Blood Brothers' by Willy Russell. Russell was born in Liverpool . He wrote his script about his own area in Liverpool, in 1981, and added music. Soon it became a world wide hit, showing in many theatrical venues, and is still a massive success in London's West End today. He takes the theme of twins, growing up, separated from birth and creates a classic. Russell was clearly bright, but he left school at fifteen, apparently delusioned. He had various jobs, including night shift worker and hairdressing salon worker. Most of his naturalistic work comes from his involvement with people. It's true life; dreams and disappointments; basic language; no airs and graces. We had to pick one major scene from the play to direct. Chloe and I chose the scene where Mickey and Edward meet for the first time and become blood brothers. Russell gives the impression that Mickey is poorer than Edward and enjoys being a child, he is just a child and acts it, whereas Edward is more sophisticated and acts more grown up , he has been taught not to play in the mud, instead he should play games more like chess, that involve skill. Mickey would be slouching against a lamppost looking tired, depressed and sullen. He would be dirty and muddy; with untidy hair; his usual white top, is covered in grass stains and streaks of mud. His sleeves
How does Elizabeth Gaskell elicit sympathy for Helen, Gregory and even William Preston in the short story 'The Half-Brothers'? Do you find this story sentimental?
The Half-Brothers Monday 13th October 2003 How does Elizabeth Gaskell elicit sympathy for Helen, Gregory and even William Preston in the short story 'The Half-Brothers'? Do you find this story sentimental? This story, The Half-Brothers, written by Elizabeth Gaskell is set in 19th century Cumberland. This story is based on some of things that happened in Mrs Gaskell's life such as her losing her children. The half brothers are Gregory and his younger brother whose name we never find out. Their mother loses her first husband and she re-marries William Preston. Their mother, Helen, dies in childbirth leaving Gregory to be brought up by his stepfather. Even though he had been badly treated by him, Gregory shows throughout that he is a true Christian. Mrs Gaskell in this story makes Helen into a very sympathetic character. The very first sentence 'My mother was twice married' is made to make us feel sympathy for her because we know that something bad must have happened in her first marriage but we don't know what it is until later on in the paragraph. Helen is also made a sympathetic character by Mrs Gaskell listing a series of dreadful events that happened to Helen. Saying how young she is 'She was barely seventeen' makes us feel sympathetic for Helen knowing that she is young and helpless. We also begin to think from this that she is too young to be married. The grief
Blood brothers - The response phase.
Drama GCSE Paper 1 Unit 2 BLOOD BROTHERS The Response Phase After previously reading the text, Blood Brothers, our task was to participate in two workshops. Both hopefully designed to enhance our knowledge of the text, and widen our range of drama techniques and medium. To help with the response of the play, Adrian Deakes joined us, to help with our understanding and feeling of the play, and to improve and develop our performances through the use of explorative strategies. Subtext was used in one of our exercises that day. In pairs, we devised a short performance about the first time that Mickey and Eddie meet. The audience knew that both boys were twin brothers but the actors themselves had no idea. Mickey and Eddie sit, eating sweets, oblivious to their background, "Oh, that sounds like super fun". They are both just enjoying each other's company. It is also used when Eddie, Linda and Mickey play together for the first time. "Hi-ya, Eddie. Look... we've got Sammy's air gun." Self-consciously Eddie is very aware of the dangers, "But Mickey...I mean...suppose we get caught...by a policeman." However, Mickey is unaware of the problem, and doesn't see the law as a big deal. This is subtext, as the audience have a good idea what is to follow and realise that this will set the fate of the brother's, as they get older, "Aah... take no notice. We've been caught loads of times
Drama portfolio - Our year eleven drama coursework classes have been studying a play written by Willy Russell called Blood brothers.
Drama portfolio Our year eleven drama coursework classes have been studying a play written by Willy Russell called Blood brothers. Throughout studying blood brothers in our workshop, I have been able to dig beneath the surface of the issues and relate with the characters thoughts and feelings. I have also been able to interpret the text by acting it out on Nemours occasions thus making it easier for me to understand the text. We have discussed in depth the moral issues and how the text can be communicated through the medium and the elements of drama. The themes explored were rich vs. poor, and the issue of nature vs. nurture. One area I found difficult was to use the Liverpool accent effectively when this was a key part of the play. The play was essentially a social comedy, but it was partially a tragedy also, both the comedy and tragedy themes kept the audience on the edge of their seats. I thought the show was excellent and it definitely fulfilled the high expectations I had of it. We explored Blood Brothers using many different explorative strategies, this helped me to be aware of all the various themes. An exercise where we used some of these themes in was when we got into groups and used hot seating to reveal more about the characters. Our group hot seated Mrs. Lyons to find her motive for taking responsibility for someone else's child. As me and my other classmates