The play that I am going to discus in this essay is “Blood Brothers” by Willy Russell. I saw this play at Manchester’s Opera house theatre on the 4th May 2005. This play is set in Liverpool over 25 years starting in the mid 60’s and ending in the late 80’s. The play covers lots of important themes such as superstition, love and different classes. The section I will cover in detail is the ending of the play as it emotionally moved me greatly. The main emotions I felt were shock, nervousness and sadness.
The costumes in this final scene were used very cleverly to show the contrast of rich and poor. Mickey was dressed in jeans with a scruffy black jacket. This shows that he was living roughly and couldn’t afford posh clothes. Similarly, Linda was wearing blue jeans with a long black overcoat. This also was not very posh. Edward on the other hand was wearing a posh suit and was well turned out. Edward’s clothes showed that he was rich and had the money to spend on clothes and suits. These clothes showed very clearly on stage who was of a higher class. The set changing added extra effect to this part of the scene as it helped move the location successfully. At the end of the 1st Act the projection on the cyclorama changed from a wall full of graffiti to a field in the countryside. This didn’t only show the location change but also that the families were moving on in life and the characters were growing up.
The first section in the final scene saw Edward meet Linda romantically behind Mickey’s back. The atmosphere created in this scene was Romantic and tense as we knew that couple should not be together. Edward was reluctant to start a relationship but comforted Linda in her time of difficulty. I could see that Edward loved Linda because he gazed into her eyes and kept hugging her. I could see that Linda loved Edward because she would run into his arms and try and kiss him.
Even though the characters loved each other they knew they could not be together. They showed this by breaking the eye contact after a few moments and taking steps away from each other before running back into each other’s arms. Their facial expressions showed longing for each other as they both had wide eyes. All of this helped show that there romantic relationship was being torn apart. The stage was split into two halves with Mickey on Stage left and Edward and Linda on stage right. This clever blocking allowed us to follow two important storylines at once. We could see the romantic affair of Linda and Edward whilst Mickey was moving on in his own life on the other side of the stage. This helped move both storylines onward.
Lights were used effectively in this scene to add to the romantic atmosphere. Dim lights with warm, soft brown and pink colours helped emphasise the romance. This effect was used to light one side of the stage where Edward and Linda were. The lights helped to define space as it made it clear to us that they were somewhere else from Mickey who was on the other side of the stage. Mickey had a dull spot light on him to show he had a low status on stage.
To help make the love scene between Edward and Linda as emotional as possible music was used. A slow love song sang by Mrs Johnstone called “Light Romance” could be heard as both Edward and Linda interacted romantically with each other. This fitted this section as it helped to set a romantic atmosphere and the words of the song also told us how they felt about each other which helped explain the plot. At this moment the set was of an outside park. Silhouettes of leaves were projected onto the ground to give it an outdoor feel. This helped us believe that Edward and Linda were outside in the country somewhere.
