Blood
Brothers
- Musical
Playwright Willy Russell
Venue - toured Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 13/29 Nicolson St,
Edinburgh
9 - 21st Oct 2001
Reviewer Thelma Good
I enjoyed this moving, comic and tragical musical even though it shows
us the ending at the start and the first few scenes are underpowered.
Blood Brothers really takes off after we meet Mickey aged seven, played
by Chris Lennon, who tears onto the stage and into our hearts.
Mickey Johnstone, lives with his elder brother Sammy, played wickedly
by Daniel Taylor, and the rest of their family and friends - "on easy
terms, drawing on the never-never in the here and now" in the slums
of 60s Liverpool.
In the earlier scenes, before Mickey arrives, we meet his mother, Mrs
Johnstone who is always pregnant. Mrs Johnstone goes to work for posh
Mrs Lyons, who never is in the family way. And then Mrs Lyons finds
out that Mrs Johnstone is expecting twins. The two desperate women,
make a binding pact before they are born. The boy twins, Mickey and
Eddie are separated soon after birth, and are not to be told of the
other's existence.
Eddie Lyons, the blood brother, is played with the wonderful strange
gaucheness which posh kids have when out of their element by John Cusworth.
Eddie encounters Mickey in the park and later, discovering they share
a birthday, they make a bond of their own. Mickey's friend Lucy, played
by Rebecca Reaney, completes the excellent young leads of this very
strong cast who all sing and act humour and tragedy equally well.
Willy Russell's Blood Brothers gives us fun, lively, truthful scenes
of lives in two different social classes, as the brothers grow up meeting
infrequently through the 60s to the 70s, and moving from urban decay
to rural estates. There are songs which point up the recurring patterns
of life and a narrator who gives an awful, godlike menace as he oversees
the story. Blood Brothers builds to a tense climax which shocked and
moved the audience on its first night in Edinburgh, drawing us to our
feet in tumultuous applause.
© Thelma Good 9 October 2001
