Analysis of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers :: Theatre Drama Blood Brothers Plays Essays

Analysis of Willy Russells kindred Brothers fork me its not trueSay its just a romanceThese words echoed in my head as I entered the Phoenix Theatre. I hadhad past experience with Blood Brothers by singing the heartbreakingballad Tell Me Its Not True in a past show. Therefore I anticipatedthat the performance I was about to watch was going to be a rollercoaster of emotions, with bitter consequences.I expected a first class show with strong, slick performances from thecast and fantastic musical numbers. This expectation of BloodBrothers was partly due to it being in the reputable West End ofLondon and had been running at the Phoenix Theatre since 1991. Thismade me think that a musical that could still have large audiencescoming to see it in the highly competitive London Theatre scene, musthave something exceptional.I similarly has background knowledge about Blood Brothers from readingthe script in parts in class. How ever so, some parts of the play werestill patchy to me, so I was looking forward to having the entire level acted out from start to finish. It was interesting for me aswell because I was familiar with other plays Willy Russell hadwritten. Having seen Shirley Valentine and read A Grand Day Out Ienjoyed his of simple, uncluttered style of writing.Blood Brothers is set in Liverpool 1962. Its story stems from animpoverished single mother of six called Mrs Johnstone who, byfinding that she is pregnant with twins, is persuaded to give up oneof her unborn children to her employer, Mrs Lyons. The story unfoldsby portraying how the two brothers grow up so differently without ever cunning they have a twin.Of one womb born, on the self same day How one was kept and one givenaway?The story deepens when the twins be keep up friends when they are sevenbut both realise that they have the same birthday and therefore areboth nearly octonary. They become best friends and declare one anotherto be their Blood Brother. From then on the story follows theirpersistenc e to remain friends and the obstacles each come up against.Sadly though, their forbidden friendship finally leads to oneanothers tragic death never knowing the truth that they werebrothers.Never knowing they shared one name Till the day they diedI never really absorbed the absurdity of the storyline because thescript was so subtle in its telling of the story, and the performanceof the cast didnt over dramatise the events unfolding. If they had,it would have made the story have an unwanted comical element as it