Blood Brothers Evaluation Essay

In June 2004, myself and the rest of my GSCE maneuver group travelled to London to suck in a performance of the mutant blood Brothers by Willy Russell. Having studied the merriment in great detail four weeks foregoing to that day, we eagerly awaited find integrityselfing the contact on stage. A workshop with the teller beforehand gave us an insight to what it was wish to be a member of the eviscerate and helped us further in relating to the characters themselves. I sh alone now evaluate the performance I saw discussing the medium and elements of drama utilize in the cultivate, and themes and symbols noned by means ofout.The tactic began with a passive take in placed behind a gauze bandage curtain. The unperturbed determine was that of the death mental picture between the dickens brothers at the end of the escape, and the image was misrepresent s electric arcly by red and profane ripples of light that were shined on the curtain itself. These ripples of ligh t can be thought of on some levels and can represent m some(prenominal) antithetical intimacys. When I thought to the highest degree it the first thing that came to my mind was the utter go outing done the ripples of time which, in work, was what we were doing.We were looking through the curtain and the ripples, and looking through time seeing an offspring that had non yet execute to pass. The still image was constructed by apiece region player in turn walking on stage and taking up their typesets, this was rough-and-ready in building up accent in the earreach as we were remaining wondering what the final picture would look like. Once the actors had taken up their positions, the gauze curtain lifted so we could see the image upholderly, and then having waited a musical composition the actors leftfield the stage, one by one, in a good deal the alike(p) mien they entered.The bank clerk, however, did not leave the stage and proceeded to deliver his lines, ex plaining the image we had just seen. The beginning of the play, in course to the destruction, built up an atmosphere of mystery story and tension. The ending was a good deal to a greater extent of a jerky burst of shock. The begging of this play is not unlike that of the famous play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Both plays begin with the end, as it were, with the opening lines telling us the events in the play and, indeed, the trend it ends.This line describes how Romeo and Juliets destine was written in the stars, as if it were their stack. This theme is real significant in both plays. The ending of the play was actually tense, due to a number of occurrenceors, and the sexual climax to the final crampfishshots was success righty moving. The way that the policemen entered through the consultation gave the play a much more real recover to it. The earreach went from sitting and observing something, to world problematical in it, and suddenly the sense of hearing base themselves right in the middle of all the action.This was a truly effective technique to use, as it meant that the listening could relate more to what was happening. paddy fields body spoken terminology built tension. They way he shifted his weight, constantly, from one foot to the other and his in-ability to find any words to say, showed his conflicted emotions and also make the audience feel nervous and anxious. After this sudden build up in tension, it seemed from the audiences orientate of view that the ending was clear. Both men, now sagacious who they truly were would accept things and get on with their lives, invigoration 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 unheralded that it alsok some time to realise on the only ifton what had taken place. This scene was extremely well(p) portrayed, as it really made the audience feel what the characters were feeling and the fact that the audience just did not expect what was to come made it even more effective still. In the play the narrator vie a very(prenominal) important array. It was he who took on the role of fate and destiny. end-to-end the play it seemed, on occasion, that it was he who was autocratic the events that were taking place.For example in the scene where the mothers made their promise the production showed it was the narrator who introduced the idea of the bible. It was he who passed it to Mrs. Lyons, had he not done this then she may neer of thought of the idea. This is not unlike that of a Greek chorus. In the olden measure a chorus was utilize to itemise plays and the leader of this would often interact with the characters on stage. The mere presence of the narrator was fabulously 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 story and watching over everything that happened. Symbolism played a gigantic part in the play, so much so that it would take days to act it all. Props were used well as symbols throughout the play. A significant prop that was used in the play was the locket Mrs Johnstone gave to Eddie to call up her and paddy field as she thought they were never going to meet again. This prop hence had the opposite effect. some other 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 private belongings that he thought bantam 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 pip-squeaks finger, then to an air gun and finally to a real gun. another(prenominal) thing in the play that progressed as the play went on was the ages of the characters, the sisterren especially. One thing that the dir ector 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 in that respect a 14year old playing the part of Mickey as an adolescent. The actors stayed the same meaning they had to conciliate to portraying children of different ages. This was done marvelously and the actors really did pull off the transitions from child to adult. The different ages were shown mostly by turn in costume, however the actors had to adopt a certain balance between adulthood and uninitiatety. 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 across on stage. Another very symbolic part of the play was the pact itself, made by the brothers. devising the pact meant spilling their blood sealing their fate or merely tempting it it is unvoiced to tell. Much of the symbolism seen in the production was not always th at which was written in the script. For example in the production, as I catch already mentioned, the narrator pass the bible to Mrs. Lyons, this was not written anyplace in the script in fact in the script, the narrator enters after the pact has been made.It was the directors choice to have this happen, and I believe it was a very good choice 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 set in eighties Liverpool and communicate many social and cultural aspects of that time. sort was an obvious step up in the play, separating the cardinal families and the 2 brothers. This separation was shown by the costumes worn, the way the characters spoke and the set used . Eddies shining school uniform was in all over contrast to that of Mickeys baggy jumpers and scuffed up muddy shoes. The production showed the two houses quite separately with two different play downs that would be lowered down whenever a scene was taking place inside(a) a house. The Lyon household consisted of a background of pale flowery paper, a too large window, one or two pictures on the walls, and nice furniture.The Johnstone house, however, portrayed an over-crowded, small and very cluttered kitchen, with very brightly blue wallpaper that looked many years old, as bits were damp, scribbled on, or had been picked off of the wall. This difference 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 monolithic problem in these times and this issue arose in t he play, at one point we saw Mickey waiting to demand the dole with his brother.This was shown in the performance by lots of For sale signs descending to position themselves outside the houses, including that of the Johnstones. We also saw a change in the attitude of the characters there was a feeling of depression plan of attack from the stage as the characters came to terms 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 myopic upbringing and also for Eddie, as his supply lifestyle left him very naive and vulnerable when eventually he was thrown into the real world.In end point I feel that the play was incredibly successful in stuffing itself full of as many hidden meanings, symbols, themes and feelings as it possibly could. The way that the play took on another dimension, as it were, involving the audience to such a great level was incredible, rise emotions and making itself memorable to say the least. boilersuit a very successful play that used the medium and elements of drama to its receipts in the greatest way possible.