Blood Brothers

It was lovely to be greeted by your appropriately dressed friendly front of house team to view your production. I was very interested to view this production delivered and produced by the youth members of your group. I was aware of the musical but had not seen the play version of the poignant story based in Liverpool in the 1960’s which contained hard hitting adult themes based around the Johnstone and Lyons families. When researching the background of the play I was interested to read that Willy Russell said ‘Blood Brothers was first performed in a secondary school in Fazakerly, a suburb of Liverpool in 1982 …. Before an audience of 400 children …. The Merseyside Young People’s Theatre Company used to bring plays into schools …. they asked me to write a play for them …. so, I took this chance.’ Therefore, there was certainly a youth connection with the production.

The stage set was cleverly constructed to delineate the difference between the two families with the more affluent structure on stage left and the Johnstone’s home in the rougher run-down area of Liverpool stage right. Both had arched alleyways beside them which were used as entrances and exits. At the back of the stage was a wooden structure which was well used by the cast members to add detail to scenes.

The lighting ensured all the scenes were clearly shown and the red light on the tableau added poignancy.   It was great to see that your training of your members from an early age to project their words eliminates the need for microphones.  The sound was set at a good level and the sound effects well timed. Both were well controlled from the back of the hall.

There were a variety of props chosen, carefully presented and moved by the players. The cot looked new and ran well on its wheels. The catapult and guns add authenticity to the scenes and I should imagine the coach-built pram was borrowed and therefore couldn’t be damaged but it looked a little pristine. I would like to congratulate the actor playing Linda on her calm untangling of the washing line whilst staying in character and feat a lot of adults would not have achieved.

The costumes were chosen to demonstrate the different classes and settings during the play. The Lyon’s were more tailored and expensive but I did feel that the lower-class outfits were a little too clean and well fitting. The Johnstone children would have worn hand me down’s which would have been ill fitting and maybe patched. They would not have been well groomed with tidy hair and Mickey would have been grubby from playing outside.

Your Musical Director did a great job at creating a haunting melody which was used throughout the production I thought the use of ‘Marilyn Monroe’ from the musical was an inspired introduction to Mrs Johnstone and set the scene following the opening tableau.

It was interesting to read your producer’s notes in the programme, a lady with certainly many ‘hats’. It is great that your company has someone who is available with such skills to assist the younger members without which we will not have a theatre in years to come.

Your group is lucky to have a young man who has the drive to ask, at 17, if there was a possibility to direct a play for the teens within the company. He is obviously fully immersed within this ‘theatre’ bubble that we all enjoy. I’m glad to see that although he has his own ideas and inspirations, he was wise enough to use all those within your company with various skills to develop his ideas. With the breadth of plays available choosing ‘Blood Brothers’ as a directorial debut was certainly a brave choice. The story of the Johnstone twins is well known and many have their own ideas of how it should be delivered so he needed to be sure of his expectations and be able to pass these on to his cast members. The story was well interpreted and you could see that he had spent time with the actors perfecting their characters. The audience appreciated the hard work and the atmosphere at the end was palpable.

The actor playing Mickey Johnstone did so with aplomb. He had perfected his Liverpudlian accent and his soliloquy was delivered with tremendous energy, although I would have liked him to slow down a little. We saw his character develop from a 7 nearly 8 ‘scally’ through his awkward teen years to a depressed, hopeless, downtrodden adult. It was truly an impressive performance.

Edward Lyons was the other end of the spectrum from Mickey. A posh, well dressed, over mothered boy who wanted for nothing.  He was fascinated by Mickey sense of fun and language and enjoyed his company. Your player gave a striking performance carrying his manner through from childhood to manhood. He showed his naivety with situations to his lack of true understanding of the class struggles that affected Mickey.

The actors portraying the brothers created excellent stage presence and chemistry on stage. They were able to draw all the comic moments out of the performance. They demonstrated their happy go lucky characteristics as small children, their angst as teenagers when the differences between their lives began to show and finally the vast different lives they lived as adults.  Ironically no matter how much their respective parents tried to keep them apart they were drawn together until their tragic end. The interaction with the other members of the cast especially Linda was great to see.

The young lady who played Mrs Johnstone gave an outstanding performance much older than her years. Portraying a penniless mother of five who was forced to sell one of her unborn twins to survive. She had a very natural accent, sang ‘Marilyn Monroe’ with a wonderful tone, delivered her text with strength and demonstrated the pain and anguish on her face.  She showed her true love for Edward whenever she encountered him.  The emotion she showed in the final tableau was heart-rendering and I would have been surprised if anyone in the audience was not affected. A superb accomplishment.

The role of Mrs Lyons is a complex part to play and your performer used many skills to demonstrate her character. She had to be played with a myriad of emotions as she spirals downwards during the performance. At the beginning she is a strong, persuasive woman who felt in control of the situation she had manipulated, a controlling mother of Edward and as the guilt ate away at her she had to begin to unravel before the audience’s eyes. An intense part well played.

The actor playing Linda demonstrated wonderful childlike energetic characteristics when playing with Mickey as a child, flirted with him outrageously and eventually became his tired, run down wife.  She delivered her role with a convincing accent, great commitment, animation and emotion. The love triangle between the characters from childhood to adulthood was well shown and added pressure on her character. I enjoyed her cameo role as Marilyn Munroe.

Depicting the pivotal role of Narrator was a very talented young player. She delivered her numerous lines with great presence and timing. I imagined she would have had a Liverpudlian accent but as she said her stanzas with such sombre commitment, commanded the stage and heralding the stories outcomes she nailed the part. A very convincing performance.

The cameo roles of the Doctor, Milkman and Policeman were well played by your performer. He spoke clearly and brought different characters to each person. Mickey’s three sisters interacted well with their mother and delivered their lines clearly. These four members of the cast also played the roles of factory workers and carol singers adding detail to scenes.

This production was a very well thought out play presented by a talented group of young people and I hope the workshop delivered by our Youth Co-ordinator gave them an insight into aspects of the play.  I would like to praise your drama group for encouraging them and look forward to watching them at a later date. Congratulations to all involved whether on or off stage.

Disclaimer 

Any observation made by the reviewer can only be based on what he sees at the performance in question.  The reviewer may have received information in advance of the performance and it is inevitable that his assessment will be affected by that knowledge. 

The NODA Representative’s intention is to give an objective critique of the overall production and in particular, the performance.  It should be remembered that any review of this nature can only be objective as far as the techniques used during the performance observed.  Any criticisms expressed may not have been valid at other performances and are only made to encourage higher standards in Amateur Theatre. 

 It is hoped that the audience’s appreciation of your efforts will have given everyone a lift and encouraged you to greater achievements in the future and that the observations made by the reviewer will prove helpful in improving future productions.

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