Blood Brothers was first performed in a secondary school in Fazakerly, a suburb of Liverpool, in 1982. It was set in the 60’s and 70’s, and shows the maturation process of the main characters lives; from children to adults. It shows two decades of uneven economic structures, with the wealth spread out unfairly, which is emblemised in the play through depicting two families, from completely different levels, with no link between the families. Willy Russell shows this class divide by giving the children different experiences, and splitting the twins dramatically shows how opportunities depict their life outcomes. Willy Russell has experience in the Johnstone family’s situation, as he grew up in a poor Liverpudlien family, which are socially and economically divided from the wealthy Liverpudlien families.
The play infers that Mrs. Johnstone is Catholic, as she has a lot of children because Catholics do not believe in contraception, and after she has agreed to give one of her twins away, Mrs. Lyons makes her swear on the bible that she would keep it a secret, as she knew that she would not be able to tell anyone. You could also say that because Mrs. Johnstone is not as wealthy as Mrs. Lyons, she does not have the same security in money, so she holds it in god, and in swearing on the bible, Mrs. Lyons knows that Mrs. Johnstone will not break her promise, as she would anger God and lose his ‘protection’ over her and have no security in him. Johnstone is also far more superstitious than Mrs. Lyons, perhaps because Mrs. Lyons has had the better education of the two.
I saw ‘Blood Brothers’ on at the Phoenix Theatre on the 21-01-2005, and the performance was quite entertaining, extremely well performed and very well staged considering the size of the stage itself, which was only about twenty meters wide. Willy Russell uses language to separate Mickey’s poor family from Edward’s rich family, giving Mickey, his family and friends a broad Liverpudlien accent, and Edward and his family received pronunciation.
My scene begins with Mrs. Johnstone screaming, searching for Mickey, as he is trying to find something, and he has a gun, enters at the estate where he used to live; it is light, but damp and dirty. Mickey has been released from jail one year early for good behaviour; he was on medication that was supposed to treat his chronic depression, and could not stop taking it. He and Edward have not spoken since their argument before Mickey was put away. Mickey has had an argument with Linda, and she has been meeting up with Edward. Edward has arranged Mickey and Linda a new job and house. Then Mrs. Lyons shows Mickey that Linda is with Edward. He has stopped taking the pills.
It is symbolically and dramatically significant that I set my scene in the old slums, as Mickey is in his place, showing us that he should be there and that Edward shouldn’t and so nothing good can come from it. I start the scene off with high drama; “We see MICKEY comb a dark, damp, busy town, breaking through the rushing groups of people, looking, searching, desperate, not even knowing what he’s looking for, where he is going or what he is going to do. MRS. JOHNSTONE and LINDA are frantically trying to find him, but not succeeding. EDWARD notices MRS. JOHNSTONE and follows her.
The lighting fades out and then fades back in to a High key lighting. We see MICKEY, standing in the road where his house once stood. MICKEY falls to his knees and starts to sob. Enter MRS. JOHNSTONE and LINDA from the wealth part of the estate.” This doesn’t use swearing, anger, or a dangerous situation to create drama, but suspense, expressed by Mrs. Johnstone and Linda panicking.
Finally, I believe that my ending scene flows well because of the difficult positions that the characters get themselves into, starting off with Mickey upset with Linda, and the badly timed arrival of Edward following Linda. I feel that the fact that Mickey does not fully comprehend his situation and actions to follow, going to the one place that he should be safe and having the thing he is trying to get away from follow him (which is also significant towards the fact that Edward and Mickey are twins and they can never fully be separated), is enough for Him and Edward to end up dead.
