Evaluation of Blood Brothers, by Willy Russell

Evaluation of Blood Brothers

On 3rd March I went to the Phoenix Theatre in West End to watch a

production of one of Willy Russell's greatest plays, Blood Brothers.

“Blood Brothers” is set in Liverpool in the early eighties. The play

follows the life of two main characters: Eddie Lyons and Mickey Johnstone,

who are twins split at birth. In Blood Brothers the characters fall into

two stereotypical groups: the working class and the upper-middle class.

The reason the play focuses on the difference in class is that the play

was written in the reign of Margaret Thatcher who told the people of Great

Britain to look after themselves, and that there is no such thing as a

society. Willy Russell was against this way of thinking and wrote plays

opposing it. Mrs. Johnstone is a typical working class woman who lives on

her own and spends more money than she earns.

Mrs. Lyons is a typical upper-middle class woman, married and doesn't

want her possessions being contaminated by the filth of the world, the

working class. Mickey, the twin that was kept by Mrs. Johnstone, is an

archetypical lower class boy, dirty ripped clothes and a mouth like a

sewer. Edward however is a stereotypical upper-middle class boy,

smart, clean uniform that uses correct English grammar. These are the

four main characters, although there is one more character that plays

a significant role in the musical, the narrator. The job of the

narrator in this play is to set the scene and bring aspects of

superstition into the play. He does this through his songs and his

dialogue. It seems slightly ironic that although the Johnstone family

is very poor they start off cheerfully, compared to the Lyons who are

rich and never seem happy. This mak...

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...projection of

the tree on the floor. At the tensest moments the lights dimmed and a

spotlight was put on the narrator to add dramatic tension.

The actors worked very well, the fact that adult actors played

children characters was barely noticeable. This is probably due to the

costumes that the actors wore. The actors that played the two boys I

feel were especially good because not only did they have to look

different ages throughout the play but they acted the ages as well. I

feel this musical as a whole was excellent, there was very good uses

of the dramatic techniques and staging techniques used by the Phoenix

theatre.

Overall I enjoyed the play and would recommend it to people that enjoy

plays where they don’t have to follow on every detail in order to

understand it. The way the narrator ties everything together makes the

story line make sense.