Blood Brothers Evaluation Essay

In June 2004, myself and the rest of my GSCE Drama group travelled to capital of the United Kingdom to watch a performance of the fetch Blood Brothers by Willy Russell. Having fagvas the stand for in great detail four weeks previous to that day, we thirstily awaited dealing the play on be. A workshop with the vote counter beforehand gave us an insight to what it was like to be a fellow member of the cast and helped us further in relating to the characters themselves. I shall promptly prise the performance I saw discussing the mean(a) and elements of drama used in the play, and themes and symbols noted by means ofout.The play began with a all the same image slipd bathroom a gauze curtain. The simmer down image was that of the death scene amongst the two brothers at the end of the play, and the image was distorted slightly by red and blue ripples of light that were shined on the curtain itself. These ripples of light can be public opinion of on legion(predicate) lev els and can represent many contrasting things. When I thought about it the first thing that came to my brainpower was the ordering looking through the ripples of time which, in effect, was what we were doing.We were looking through the curtain and the ripples, and looking through time seeing an event that had not yet come to pass. The still image was constructed by each promoter in turn walking on stage and taking up their positions, this was good in building up tension in the interview as we were left wondering what the final picture would look like. at once the actors had taken up their positions, the gauze curtain lifted so we could see the image properly, and then having waited a while the actors left the stage, maven by one, in much the same way they entered.The narrator, however, did not leave the stage and proceeded to deliver his lines, explaining the image we had near seen. The beginning of the play, in contrast to the ending, build up an atmosphere of mystery and tension. The ending was much more of a sudden burst of shock. The begging of this play is not several(predicate) that of the far-famed play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Both plays begin with the end, as it were, with the opening lines tell us the events in the play and, indeed, the way it ends.This line describes how Romeo and Juliets circumstances was written in the stars, as if it were their destiny. This theme is very pregnant in both plays. The ending of the play was very tense, due to a subroutine of factors, and the climax to the final artilleryshots was successfully moving. The way that the policemen entered through the auditory modality gave the play a much more real feel to it. The earreach went from session and observing something, to being involved in it, and suddenly the sense of hearing anchor themselves right in the middle of all the action.This was a very telling technique to use, as it meant that the audience could relate more to what was happening. Mickeys body manner of speaking built tension. They way he shifted his weight, constantly, from one cornerstone to the other and his in-ability to find any words to say, showed his conflicted emotions and also do the audience feel nervous and anxious. After this sudden build up in tension, it seemed from the audiences point of view that the ending was clear. Both men, now knowing who they truly were would accept things and get on with their lives, living happily ever after.Even knowing what the end would, in fact, be, the thought still crossed my mind and when the gunshots went off, it was so unexpected that it took some time to gather in exactly what had taken place. This scene was extremely well portrayed, as it very make the audience feel what the characters were feeling and the fact that the audience just did not expect what was to come do it even more effective still. In the play the narrator played a very valu adequate branch. It was he who took on the port ion of bunch and destiny. Throughout the play it seemed, on occasion, that it was he who was controlling the events that were taking place.For example in the scene where the mothers made their cartel the production showed it was the narrator who introduced the idea of the leger. It was he who passed it to Mrs. Lyons, had he not done this then she may never of thought of the idea. This is not unlike that of a Greek chorus. In the olden times a chorus was used to narrate plays and the leader of this would often interact with the characters on stage. The unmixed presence of the narrator was incredibly foreboding as his body language and facial expressions were very sinister throughout the play.The fact that the narrator never left the stage also added to the feeling that he was controlling the trading floor and watching over everything that happened. Symbolism played a huge part in the play, so much so that it would take days to play it all. Props were used well as symbols throu ghout the play. A significant prop that was used in the play was the locket Mrs Johnstone gave to Eddie to remember her and Mickey as she thought they were never going to meet again. This prop consequently had the antonym effect. Another prop was the sweets Edward gave to Mickey as a gesture of friendship.This showed the audience that Edward was a character who used his personal belongings that he thought little of, to make friends. A prop that was used in different ways throughout the play was a gun. This prop went through the stages of firstly being a childs finger, then to an air gun and finally to a real gun. Another thing in the play that progressed as the play went on was the ages of the characters, the children especially. One thing that the director chose to do was to keep the same actors all the way through. There was not a 7year old playing the part of Mickey at 7.Nor was on that point a 14year old playing the part of Mickey as an adolescent. The actors stayed the same convey they had to adapt to portraying children of different ages. This was done superbly and the actors really did puff of air off the transitions from child to adult. The different ages were shown mostly by change in costume, however the actors had to adopt a certain balance between matureness and credulousty. When they were young, the latter was more prominent but the characters were forced to grow up too soon and maturity took over.This was clear in the way the actors came crossways on stage. Another very symbolic part of the play was the pact itself, made by the brothers. Making the pact meant spilling their blood sealing their fate or merely tempting it it is hard to tell. Much of the symbolism seen in the production was not always that which was written in the script. For example in the production, as I have already mentioned, the narrator handed the bible to Mrs. Lyons, this was not written anywhere in the script in fact in the script, the narrator enters after the pac t has been made.It was the directors pick to have this happen, and I believe it was a very good select as it really brought across the narrators role as fate/destiny in the play. The director of the production I saw, made many more slight changes to the script, each one emphasised the role of destiny and fate more, and overall achieving the desired effect of leading the audience to believe we were being told the story, rather than seeing it as it happened. The play was tog in eighties Liverpool and addressed many social and cultural aspects of that time. home was an obvious issue in the play, separating the two families and the two brothers. This separation was shown by the costumes worn, the way the characters spoke and the set used. Eddies smart school homogeneous was in complete contrast to that of Mickeys baggy jumpers and scuffed up muddy shoes. The production showed the two houses quite separately with two different backgrounds that would be lowered down whenever a scene w as taking place inside a house. The Lyon household consisted of a background of pale flowery wallpaper, a large window, one or two pictures on the walls, and victorian furniture.The Johnstone house, however, portrayed an over-crowded, small and very cluttered kitchen, with very brightly slanting wallpaper that looked many years old, as bits were damp, scribbled on, or had been picked off of the wall. This deflection in the way the two houses looked showed how the two families were of very separate classes. The Lyons were able to afford a large house, nice sofa and wallpaper still attached to the wall, however the Johnstones could not afford any of these things. Unemployment was a sorry problem in these times and this issue arose in the play, at one point we saw Mickey waiting to collect the dole with his brother.This was shown in the performance by lots of For sale signs descending to position themselves outdoors the houses, including that of the Johnstones. We also saw a chan ge in the attitude of the characters there was a feeling of depression coming from the stage as the characters came to wrong with their situations. The way unemployment was portrayed in the play was very effective it made the audience feel sorry for the characters, for Mickeys poor genteelness and also for Eddie, as his sheltered lifestyle left him very naive and vulnerable when eventually he was thrown into the real world.In conclusion I feel that the play was incredibly successful in stuffing itself full of as many hidden meanings, symbols, themes and feelings as it by chance could. The way that the play took on another dimension, as it were, involving the audience to much(prenominal) a great level was incredible, heightening emotions and making itself memorable to say the least. Overall a very successful play that used the medium and elements of drama to its advantage in the greatest way possible.