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

Analysis of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers Tell me it’s not true Say it’s just a story These words echoed in my head as I entered the Phoenix Theatre. I had had past experience with â€Å"Blood Brothers† by singing the heartbreaking ballad â€Å"Tell Me It’s Not True† in a past show. Therefore I anticipated that the performance I was about to watch was going to be a roller coaster of emotions, with bitter consequences. I expected a first class show with strong, slick performances from the cast and fantastic musical numbers. This expectation of â€Å"Blood Brothers† was partly due to it being in the reputable West End of London and had been running at the Phoenix Theatre since 1991. This made me think that a musical that could still have large audiences coming to see it in the highly competitive London Theatre scene, must have something exceptional. I also has background knowledge about â€Å"Blood Brothers† from reading the script in parts in class. However, some parts of the play were still patchy to me, so I was looking forward to having the entire story acted out from start to finish. It was interesting for me as well because I was familiar with other plays Willy Russell had written. Having seen Shirley Valentine and read â€Å"A Grand Day Out† I enjoyed his of simple, uncluttered style of writing. â€Å"Blood Brothers† is set in Liverpool 1962. Its story stems from an impoverished single mother of six called Mrs Johnstone who, by finding that she is pregnant with twins, is persuaded to give up one of her unborn children to her employer, Mrs Lyons. The story unfolds by portraying how the two brothers grow up so differently without ever knowing they have a twin. â€Å"Of one womb born, on the self same day How one was kept and one given away?† The story deepens when the twins become friends when they are seven but both realise that they have the same birthday and therefore are both â€Å"nearly eight†. They become best friends and declare one another to be their â€Å"Blood Brother†. From then on the story follows their persistence to remain friends and the obstacles each come up against. Sadly though, their forbidden friendship finally leads to one another’s tragic death; never knowing the truth that they were brothers. Never knowing they shared one name Till the day they died I never really absorbed the absurdity of the storyline because the script was so subtle in its telling of the story, and the performance of the cast didn’t over dramatise the events unfolding. If they had, it would have made the story have an unwanted comical element as it