I am starting this piece where Eddie is seen in the Town Hall; Eddie will be standing on a podium near the back centre of the stage, which means there is a lot of room for the rest of the action to be clearly seen without obstruction later on. His audience’s chairs will be in one row with a gap between to walk down they will also be spread out quite a bit so when the audience runs off its done quickly and without any problems. His audience that he is addressing have their backs to the auditorium, showing that they aren’t important and the audience’s attention should all be on Eddie. There are about ten people in Eddie’s audience.
Eddie has two councillors standing either side of him listening to the points he raises intently they will wear white shirts black ties so they don’t stand out too much. Eddie is wearing a grey suit, white shirt, black tie and black shoes, the dark colour showing the morbidity of what is about to happen. His hair is neatly slicked back, he looks prim and proper and stands tall with a strong posture, he uses his hands to express himself.
His voice is loud, confident and meaningful showing he takes pride in his work, loving the attention. I want Eddie to act like this to show off his character and the difference between himself and Mickey. There is a strong white light fixed on Eddie putting most of his audience in near darkness making your eyes focus fully on Eddie. As the audience knows what is going to happen in the end they should be on edge and feeling nervous as they try and figure out the near future of the play.
Eddie notices his audience becoming disturbed as he is in mid flow of his speech. He thinks he is being heckled and tries to carry on ignoring the disruption. In fact the audience is reacting to the sight of a haggard Mickey appearing from a door at the side of the theatre nearest the stage. Mickey is wearing dirty blue overalls form the factory with a white tee shirt underneath. His hair is a mess and his face and hands are riddles with filth. He has a tired look on his face to show he is stressed with all that has gone on and his feelings, he feels tired of everything. He slowly and unsteadily eases his way up a small set of stairs at the side of the stage, clutching the banister tight to steady him. His eyes are firmly fixed on Eddie like a predator to its prey, showing that his anger is about to explode and he’s going to pounce for Eddie.
Mickey hates the fact that Eddie is more successful than himself as pride takes over him. Once Mickey has struggled his way up the stairs and reaches the stage with the attention of Eddie’s audience and Eddie also, he stands with his legs slightly apart and the produces a gun out of a pocket on the hip of his boiler suite. He holds the gun with two hands to steady the trembling and points straight at Eddie. A shriek is heard from a startled member of Eddie’s audience as she realises the reality of the situation.
By this time a lot of the audience would have ran off using the door the opposite side of where Mickey appeared, their exit being in a rushed fashion but professionally done with no knocked over chairs and bumps into one another. Only the startled female and the two councillors are still on the stage as they try to get her off stage but it is like she has frozen with fear. The main audience at this point should be feeling nervous, the will be worrying about what Mickey is going to do.
The lighting at present in the production is dim with the only major light of Mickey and Eddie making them more protruding to the audiences and making the mood more intense. Eddie will stand off his podium making him on the same level as Mickey, and then the uneasy silence is broken between the two when Mickey abruptly says to Eddie “stay where you are!” Mickey’s voice is shaky but abrupt; his tone is threatening to show Eddie that this isn’t a joke.
He is nervous but wants to show Eddie that he is in charge, his body language and tone of voice shows both feelings. Mickey is standing tall and strong but his trembling voice shows the real him through his hard exterior. Mickey edges his way closer and closer to Eddie very slowly, he stops a yard or so from him, his breathing is awkward and heavy. Eddie has a startled look upon his face at the sight of Mickey as he is in such a mess and the gun pointing right at him is worrying him and making him very nervy. Their eyes are glued to one another.
The atmosphere on stage is dark and gives a feeling of claustrophobia to the audience. As the two draw closer and closer towards each other the frozen silence between them comes to a clam ending when Eddie gently says “Hello Mickey.” As they stand alone on the stage the feud between them is on the rise and you can tell this by their body language as Eddie is trying to stay calm and keep Mickey’s anger at bay. “I’ve stopped taking the pills,” Mickey tells Eddie.
Mickey forces these words out as you can tell nerves are taking a big toll in the way he is talking. Mickey then takes one hand of the gun and wipes his perspiring brow with the sleeve of his overall, the hand holding the gun shaking unsteadily as it works alone. Eddie realises how potentially dangerous this situation is and tries to slowly back off from Mickey as he worries for his own welfare. The two spotlights lighting the two up are very bright showing that they are apart and the two that were “Blood Brothers” are no more. Mickey has tears in his eyes when he says, ” I had to start thinkin’ again. Because there was one thing left in my life” Mickey pauses taking deep breaths showing this is hurting him deep down when he says this, his head hangs and he cant look at Eddie. “Just one thing I had left, Eddie – Linda – an’ I wanted to keep her. So, so I stopped takin’ the pills.
I would have Mickey saying this quite loud but in a calm tone of voice, to show he is trying to fight back the floods of tears that are building up inside. “But it was too late” Mickey’s voice at this point would be getting louder and more powerful and abrupt, “D’y’ know who told me about you…an’ Linda…your mother…she came to the factory and told me.” Venom at this point is raging through his voice. Eddie replies with “Mickey I, don’t know what she told you but Linda and I are just friends…” as Eddie says this he cant look at Eddie and plays with his hands in an awkward way as he knows this inst true as he had strong feelings for Linda and even asked her to marry him, unaware that she was already married to Mickey. Mickey will then jump in with an explosive next line “Friends! I could kill you. We were friends weren’t we?
Blood brothers wasn’t it? Remember? Mickey is bursting with anger his body language jerking, he can’t keep still. He parades up and down in front of Eddie as he talks. “Yes, Mickey. I remember.” Eddie says very slowly pausing between each word as in his head he reminisces of their childhood together, he then sort of wakes up when Mickey starts talking, he jumps a little. “Well how come you got everything… an’ I got nothin’?” he pauses “friends” he huffs at him as though there was now no meaning to the word. Mickey is jealous of Eddie’s success; Mickey has had to work very hard to support himself and his family while Eddie concentrated on his career.
Even when the brothers were young Eddie had everything nice house food on the table where as Mickey and his family always struggled for food and they never had nice things. The class division is so apparent in the way they speak and look; they are at both ends of the spectrum. Mickey is a proud character and takes his lack of success and happiness out on Eddie. Willy wants to make the audience sympathise with Mickey and to feel sorry for him and the life he has led, he wants him to come across more pathetic that evil.
