Blood Brothers
This past weekend, S and I, on somewhat of a spur of the moment, decided to go see the final matinee performance of Blood Brothers and the Thousand Islands Playhouse. Heading there, I knew little about the play. It was a musical, had played at the Gladstone theatre here earlier in the year, and closed early as it didn't get the audiences the management had expected. My mom, however, raved about the Gan playhouse's production and encouraged us both to go. And so we did.
It was, in a word, astonishing. The Gan Playhouse has put on decades of excellent theatre, but Blood Brothers was, I believe, the finest play I'd yet seen there. Two days later, it still haunts me, this fable of the Johstone twins, set in Margaret Thatcher's England.
Blood Brothers is a story of a working-class single mother who, in poverty, finds herself pregnant with twins. Unable to afford to raise them both, she is forced to give one away to her wealthy, childless employer, Mrs. Lyons. Mrs Lyons takes one, names him Edward and raises him as her own. The remaining twin, Mickey, remains with his mother, and seven siblings. Eddie and Mickey's bond is hidden from them, but they discover each other as children .. become best friends, and, as the title of the play goes, 'blood brothers'. The two brothers grow, knowing each other only as best friends. Eddie, a sweet, kind hearted boy, thinks the world of Mickey, despite his privilege. He thinks Mickey 'says the most smashing things', and teaches him to shoot air guns, and talk back to the police. In one of the most tragic scenes, Eddie and Mrs Johnstone meet each other for the first time since she'd given him away, and she doesn't recognize him as her own son.
Blood Brothers plays out to its inevitable, tragic conclusion. The audience knows immediately how the play will end, as the first scene is in fact the last, and shows the ultimate fate of the Johnstone twins. But leading up to that final, fateful moment, is one of the most touching and haunting tales I've ever seen in theatre. I was completely swept away by the story, wanting to somehow save them from their inevitable fate. And when the final scene played out, I found it shocking, and utterly believable. I wept, as I heard many others in the audience doing, as the final song played. We gave the cast a wholly deserved standing ovation.
The story is not only about a tragedy that destroyed two families, but is a morality play on class, fate, destiny. Mickey's final, terrible descent into depression and violence was brought about by his losing his job, a fate uncomfortably familiar to myself and many others.
Blood Brothers is a musical, but is not one that many will likely go out, humming the tunes and whistling the lyrics. Willy Russell uses music and poetry to create an ominous, wistful atmosphere, and returns to the same themes over and again to underscore recurring ideas in the play.
Two songs that have really stuck with me since seeing the play ..
First .. 'Tell Me It's Not True' .. the closing song, as Mrs Johstone cradles the bodies of her dead sons ..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnQMpOTLWXo
And second ... 'Easy Terms' .. the song used to illustrate Mrs Johnston's anguish over giving away one of her infant sons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr32SuIOPgc
It was, in a word, astonishing. The Gan Playhouse has put on decades of excellent theatre, but Blood Brothers was, I believe, the finest play I'd yet seen there. Two days later, it still haunts me, this fable of the Johstone twins, set in Margaret Thatcher's England.
Blood Brothers is a story of a working-class single mother who, in poverty, finds herself pregnant with twins. Unable to afford to raise them both, she is forced to give one away to her wealthy, childless employer, Mrs. Lyons. Mrs Lyons takes one, names him Edward and raises him as her own. The remaining twin, Mickey, remains with his mother, and seven siblings. Eddie and Mickey's bond is hidden from them, but they discover each other as children .. become best friends, and, as the title of the play goes, 'blood brothers'. The two brothers grow, knowing each other only as best friends. Eddie, a sweet, kind hearted boy, thinks the world of Mickey, despite his privilege. He thinks Mickey 'says the most smashing things', and teaches him to shoot air guns, and talk back to the police. In one of the most tragic scenes, Eddie and Mrs Johnstone meet each other for the first time since she'd given him away, and she doesn't recognize him as her own son.
Blood Brothers plays out to its inevitable, tragic conclusion. The audience knows immediately how the play will end, as the first scene is in fact the last, and shows the ultimate fate of the Johnstone twins. But leading up to that final, fateful moment, is one of the most touching and haunting tales I've ever seen in theatre. I was completely swept away by the story, wanting to somehow save them from their inevitable fate. And when the final scene played out, I found it shocking, and utterly believable. I wept, as I heard many others in the audience doing, as the final song played. We gave the cast a wholly deserved standing ovation.
The story is not only about a tragedy that destroyed two families, but is a morality play on class, fate, destiny. Mickey's final, terrible descent into depression and violence was brought about by his losing his job, a fate uncomfortably familiar to myself and many others.
Blood Brothers is a musical, but is not one that many will likely go out, humming the tunes and whistling the lyrics. Willy Russell uses music and poetry to create an ominous, wistful atmosphere, and returns to the same themes over and again to underscore recurring ideas in the play.
Two songs that have really stuck with me since seeing the play ..
First .. 'Tell Me It's Not True' .. the closing song, as Mrs Johstone cradles the bodies of her dead sons ..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnQMpOTLWXo
And second ... 'Easy Terms' .. the song used to illustrate Mrs Johnston's anguish over giving away one of her infant sons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr32SuIOPgc