Evaluation of Blood Brothers, by Willy Russell Essay -- Blood Brothers

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. â€Å"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... ...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.