In the easy terms piece I think you could create a tear-rending scene by having Mrs. Johnstone in a apron or a maids dress to show she is very busy and she works a lot even though its probably not a well paid job. You could have her level with the babies to show the connection she has with them, she doesn’t want to scare or intimidate them, she wants to mother them and putting her in this position will show what feelings she feels towards them. ‘Then, I’m afraid,’ this shows she is dreading the idea of what is going to happen. She should have a dreading, saddening face on and look as though she is about to burst into tears. I think the lighting should position a spot light on the babies and Mrs. Johnstone, concentrating on them and showing what is important. The volume of the music should move up and down to show her bursts of emotion but the sadness is shown with the quietness now and then.
She is also thinking of her child when she swears on a bible; so that he gets all the things he’s ever wanted or needed. We have seen Mrs. J as a kind, giving person and we give the response of sympathy. She has no money, no food, no normal, simple necessities, she just wants to have a care-free life and she’s showing she is prepared to work hard for it.
I think the author has portrayed Mrs. J as a pushy, selfish person. At the beginning we thought of her with sympathy, her husbands away, she has a big house with no family to fill it with and cannot have the joy of children. You start to see her side on how she has never had a child and craves one so badly that she even dreams of a child she never once had but then, the table turns and we she her bad side. We see her desperate side as she says that you have to swear on a bible, then we see that she is very pushy and selfish, when she says to Mrs. J that she wants the baby right now, this could mean that she doesn’t want her to get attached to the baby, making it even more hers. Suddenly we see her pushy side when the baby is in the cot, Mrs. Lyons makes it clear that the baby is hers and that she is the mother from now on. It’s even worse when we see she is firing her from her job, breaking a promise and even threatening her when she says she is going to tell someone, turning the blame to Mrs. J. We then see that Mrs. Lyons has a very dark side to her as she uses superstition against Mrs. J, knowing that, that is her weakness. In a way I can see her point of view, this is her chance to take what she’s always wanted, to make her life perfect and she is never going to let it slip away since it’s so close to reach for. The response he is trying to get from the audience is a hated view, that she is a very terrible person and that she is doing all she can to get what she wants regardless of other peoples feelings.
The play is about a number of things. The main one being superstition. Mrs. J starts the superstition in the play by telling Mrs. L to take the new shoes off the table because it is bad luck. Then even Mrs. L becomes superstitious; she may have even tricked herself as well as Mrs. J when she said about the twins dying, she could have believed herself about the twins knowing of each other. Ever since then in the play, she became even more superstitious than Mrs. J. She starts to get more paronoid than she was at the beginning and even tells her own husband not to put the shoes on the table later on in the play, ‘Frightened of... (she is stopped by the sight of the shoes on the table. She rushes at the table and sweeps the shoes off)’ this shows of the growing superstion. Love is also a big part of the story, both Mrs. J and Mrs. L share the motherly love throughout Blood Brothers. Mrs. L loves Edward as if he were hers and since she had longed for a child for so long, she had to release the love she kept bottled up all those years. Whereas Mrs. J couldn’t stop having children but even though she had so many, it didn’t make her love smaller, it grew as they did, “I love the bones of every one of them” she’s had that motherly love all along. The play also showed the divide in society, how people live and how they react to different things, even the people around them act differently to the rich and to the poor. It goes to show that even though you may just live next door to someone, you both maybe in your own little worlds.
This play was a mixture of different types and surprisingly it completely worked and I think everyone loved it. It had tragedy by having the death of the twins. It had comedy, miniature things that make you giggle and others that make you laugh for quite awhile. It was also a musical as it had many different songs played, the narrators repeated throughout to remind you that a debt must always be paid.
I absolutely loved this play; it had everything that I love. A bit of something that will make you laugh, something you can understand through music, music can also make it more emotional and an amazing end that left you sitting there with your mouth hanging open minutes after the play had finished. It was just utterly fantastic. I always love a play that can move you so much to leave you in tears and this is one of those plays. I couldn’t stop the tears at the end as I processed what had just happened and looked at the “dead” play members on the stage ahead of me.
The message can be; don’t be selfish and don’t let people pressure you to do things you don’t want to do, think of the future and do what you think is right. It could also be; what comes around goes around (Karma). It can also be; think of the possibilities, what you think is right now, could be wrong in later life. It can be; the devil is always waiting for you to do something wrong.
The things that the mothers have in common can be that they both share the motherly love, Mrs. J: “I love the bones of every one of them”. Mrs. L: “I rush down but as I fold my arms around him, he’s gone. Was he ever there at all?”
They both what their child. They both want Edward, Mrs. J can’t leave him and Mrs. L can’t give him back. Mrs. J: “If I’m going, I’m taking him with me.” Mrs. L: “He’s my baby Mrs. Johnstone.”
They are also very different because of society; Mrs. J is very poor, has a small house and has hardly any money to pay for anything. Whereas Mrs. L has a massive house, very rich and has all the money just to give away. Also Mrs. J can’t stop having children and even though she loves every one of them and would love to give them what they want, supporting them. She finds it hard to cope and has a small house to fit them all into but Mrs. Lyons on the other hand can’t have even one child and has a massive house with no children able to wonder through it. Mrs. J: “If my child was raised in a palace like this one. He wouldn’t have to worry where his next meal is coming from.” Mrs. L: “And he’d sleep every night in a bed of his own.”
