Blood Brothers Evaluation Essay

In June 2004, myself and the rest of my GSCE Drama sort out travelled to London to watch a performance of the tender melodic short letterline Brothers by Willy Russell. Having studied the play in great detail quartet weeks previous to that day, we eagerly awaited eyesight the play on play. A workshop with the narrator beforehand gave us an insight to what it was like to be a member of the cast and helped us further in relating to the characters themselves. I shall now evaluate the performance I saw discussing the medium and elements of play employ in the play, and themes and symbols noted dvirtuosoout.The play began with a still theatrical role placed behind a gauze chimneypiece. The still image was that of the end fit between the twain brothers at the end of the play, and the image was garble slightly by red and blue ripples of light that were shined on the curtain itself. These ripples of light underside be conception of on m each levels and can represent many d ifferent involvements. When I thought about it the beginning liaison that came to my mind was the saying looking through the ripples of time which, in violence, was what we were doing.We were looking through the curtain and the ripples, and looking through time seeing an blusht that had not yet come to pass. The still image was constructed by each actor in turn walking on pose and taking up their positions, this was effective in earning up stress in the audience as we were odd wondering what the final effect would look like. Once the actors had interpretn up their positions, the gauze curtain lift so we could see the image landerly, and wherefore having waited a while the actors left over(p) the stage, one by one, in a lot the same course they entered.The narrator, however, did not leave the stage and proceeded to deliver his lines, explaining the image we had just seen. The beginning of the play, in contrast to the oddment, built up an atmosphere of mystery and te nsion. The ending was much more(prenominal) of a sudden 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 way it ends.This line describes how Romeo and Juliets fate was written in the stars, as if it were their destiny. This theme is in truth significant in both plays. The ending of the play was rattling tense, pullible to a number of occurrenceors, and the climax to the final gunshots was successfully moving. The way that the policemen entered through the audience gave the play a much more authentic find out to it. The audience went from sitting and observing virtuallything, to being involved in it, and unawares the audience found themselves right in the middle of all the action.This was a genuinely effective technique to use, as it meant that the audience could relate more to what was h appening. Mickeys body language 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 besides made 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 realise exactly what had taken place. This scene was extremely hale 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 played a actually important split up. It was he who took on the role of fate and d estiny. end-to-end 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 pact the drudgery 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 never of thought of the idea. This is not unlike that of a Greek chorus. In the olden clock a chorus was used to narrate plays and the leader of this would often move with the characters on stage. The mere presence of the narrator was implausibly foreboding as his body language and facial expressions were really sinister passim 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 huge part in the play, so much so that it would take days to interpret it all. Props were used well as symbols throughout the play. A significant ai rplane propeller that was used in the play was the locket Mrs Johnstone gave to Eddie to commemorate her and Mickey as she thought they were never going to meet again. This prop consequently had the opposite 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 keeping 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 music director chose to do was to keep the same actors all the way through. in that respect was not a 7year old playing the part of Mickey at 7.Nor was there a 14year old playing the part of Mickey as an adolescent. The actors stayed the same meaning they had to adapt to portraying children of different ages. This was done superbly and the actors really did pull 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 labyrinthine sense between maturity and naivety. When they were young, the latter was more prominent but the characters were obligate 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. Making the pact meant spilling their blood sealing their fate or merely tempting it it is hard to tell. much(prenominal) of the symbolism seen in the production was not always that which was written in the volume. 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 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 addressed many affable and cultural aspects of that time.Class was an obvious issue in the play, separating the twain families and the two brothers. This separation was shown by the costumes worn, the way the characters spoke and the set used. Eddies knowing school uniform was in complete contrast to that of Mickeys baggy jumpers and scuffed up muddy shoes. The production showed the two houses quite respectively with two different minimises that would be lowered down whenever a scene was 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 nice furniture.The Johnstone house, however, portrayed an over-crowded, small and very cluttered kitchen, with very brightly coloured 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 big 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 locomote to position themselves outside the houses, including that of the Johnstones. We also saw a change in t he attitude of the characters there was a feeling of depression coming 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 poor upbringing 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 secret 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, heightening emotions and qualification 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.