Blood Brothers, by Willy Russell

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Recommended: Themes and subject matter of blood brothers

Blood Brothers The class was divided into 3 groups of four for this unit. In my group, I had Chris Adelaide, Jimmy Gevaux and Micky Collins. We were supposed to encrypt a piece of the Blood Brothers, to act on. We were all given a chance to pick the character, we want to be throughout the play; so, I chose Mrs Johnstone to show a diversity of character. Gingerbread of Mrs. Johnstone Mrs Johnstone is struggling to bring up her rowdy kids. With her husband long gone, and not enough money to pay the milkman, she takes up a cleaning job at the Lyons' posh household to make ends meet. When Mrs Johnstone finds herself 'in the club' yet again with twins, Mrs Lyons sees a solution to her own problems. Unable to have children, she offers to take one of the twins from Mrs Johnstone after they are born. When Mrs Johnstone consents, Mrs Lyons forces her to swear on the bible she will keep her word. But things go wrong after the children are born; with Mrs Johnstone loathe giving up either of her beautiful baby boys. But having sworn on the holy book, she is forced to let Mrs Lyons takes one of the twins. From here, Mrs Johnstone's life goes from bad to worse. She is sacked from her cleaning job and wonders whether she will ever see her son again. Years pass, until one day Mrs Johnstone's seven-year-old son Mickey meets Eddie Lyons, a boy his own age from the posh part of town. They strike up an immediate friendship and become 'blood brothers'. But despite discovering they share the same birthday, neither has an inkling of their real family ties - or the disaster that lies ahead, stemming from their mothers' secret 'pact with the devil'. As Mrs Johnstone, Mickey's downtrodden but loving mother. Throughout the performance I had to maintain maintains a perfectly measured Scouse accent, and commands the attention of the audience with an anguished and emotional performance. As brothers Mickey and Eddie, Micky Collins and Chris Adelaide are excellent. The pair are frequently immature and hilarious as young boys, but give emotionally charged performances as their characters move into the troubled waters of adult life. This injection of feeling is crucial in bringing Blood Brothers to its choking finale, which sees Mrs.Johnstone on her knees belting out the Zeitgeist 'Tell Me It's Not True' with every last sinew. It's one of those rare and fantastic moments in theatre where you feel your whole body tingling

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