blood brothers – devizine.com

What can possibly be better than watching a performance of “Blood Brothers” by Willy Russell? Watching TWO performances of “Blood Brothers” by Willy Russell of course! Next Stage Youth performed their dress rehearsals at The Mission Theatre last night, and with two casts we were treated to both of them in action.

The story-line of “Blood Brothers” is easily findable on the web if required, so I won’t bore you with it here, but Next Stage Youth deliver a stripped back – but by no means lesser for it – version of the musical. With most of the songs trimmed out to create a fast paced, bare boned, breathless ninety minute production, the audience is kept fully engaged as the tale of twins separated at birth (sound familar?) takes us from city to country, working to middle class, struggles.

The set matches this approach – in the round, bare floor with clever use of eight hinged lidded boxes as prop containers, chairs, windows and walls and the actors do the rest. Clever tech from Kris Nuttal, Alex Tarasevych and Rowan Bendle, with choreography by Hayley Fitton-Cook and wardrobe by Vanessa Bishop paints all the pictures our minds need for this tale of friendship, jealousy, social extremes and madness. Voice coaches Kay Francksen and John Matthews deserve credit too for taking what are a group of West Country youth and getting them to deliver decently passable Scouse accents 😊

Principals are split between the two casts but the ensemble for both remains the same four core actors, a huge kudos to their abilities despite their young ages. I’ll wrap up with the cast lists at the end of this review, but it is more that fair to say all the casts show passion and no little assurance in delivering their characterisations as separated twins raised each side of the tracks (sound familiar?), their mothers, best friend and the wonderful narrators (more of them later!). It would be unfair to pick any of these principles out for any more praise that others but I will say I had the pleasure of seeing two generations of the Chivers family perform in two nights in two different shows and the dynasty forming is clear! Also Dilys Hughes deserves a mention as it’s the second time I’ve had the privilege of seeing her act after her appearance in “Jerusalem” recently.

The pairings of Mrs Johnston and Micky were spot on. Both the Eddie’s almost stole the show. The pair of Lindas broke all our hearts as the devoted girlfriends of both twins, while both Mrs Lyons craft the character’s descent into madness superbly – sound familiar?. And the Narrators excel in both casts, including the siblings Gully and Edith Kuenzler playing opposite each other. And another mention to the pairs of twins which are devoted to each other until Micky rejects Eddie and his best friend becomes his enemy – sound familiar?

This just leaves my appreciation of the director Ann Ellison. The stripped back show she has developed really works but it’s the little touches that really shine. The narrators appear as marionette puppeteers, controlling the characters as the story unfolds…. Sound familiar?

So those allusions of familiarity? Well, four hundred years is a LONG time in theatre… but what stood out to me again and again were the parallels in the story and developed by Ann just shout Shakespeare to me. We have twins separated at birth ( Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night) but the clear parallels are with Macbeth… where Eddie is Banquo and Mickey is Macbeth in their friendship story arc, Mrs Lyons is Lady Macbeth in her descent into madness, and brilliance of brilliance the marionette puppeteers controlling the destiny of the characters are the Witches. Sublime. Goosebumps.

The play itself encompasses so much; it’s a story of superstitions – shoes on tables, a single magpie, prophecies of separated twins. Foreshadowing of the twins eventual demise with the use of a particular implement throughout Mickey’s personal timeline. And almost biblical allusions to two mothers – one mother giveth, the other taketh away. And Russell – and Next Stage Youth – leave us with existential queries… is Eddie patronising? Is Mickey ungrateful? Had Mrs Lyons selected the other twin would the story have ended the same – nature versus nurture? And overall it is a play that presents a very downbeat view of married life from both ends of the socio-economic spectrum, wonderfully portrayed by these young actors.

“Blood Brothers” is showing this week Thursday 27^th March to Sunday 30^th March at 19:30 with matinees at 14:00 Saturday and Sunday

Lucky For Some

Andy Fawthrop

We don’t believe in all that Friday The 13^th unlucky malarkey, do we? Still it was unusual to be at Long Street on a Friday night, rather than the usual Saturday, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow when the big names like this are on tour. Ian’s agent gave him the shout for a gig in Devizes amidst a crowded Autumn/ Winter tour schedule, and so “yes please, we’ll have some of that” was the obvious answer.

Ian’s confidence in booking these guys was amply rewarded with an absolutely packed house, providing a great atmosphere.

The evening opened with special guest Adam Giles Levy. His opening blast was a powerful acapella version of Vera Hall’s “Trouble So Hard” (as made famous by Moby). Unfortunately this was the best thing he did in his 40-minute set. Once he took up his guitar and started singing his meandering songs, things went rather downhill. The style was loud and brash, and the songs seemed formless and open-ended, whilst his loose vocal and guitar styles sounded discordant and self-indulgent. The inter-song patter was rambling and only audible to those at the front. There was some perfunctory audience participation, but I didn’t feel that he ever had the crowd actually with him. Applause was polite and perfunctory, rather than enthusiastic. To me it was just a noise, and I was glad when it finally stopped. I really don’t like giving a bad review to anyone, but I just couldn’t warm to this guy, and I wasn’t enjoying my evening. I felt the big crowd deserved better than this. Asking around I got a lot of mixed reviews – some thought he was OK, but the majority gave him a firm thumbs-down. Not just me then.

Fortunately things bucked up considerably after that as Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia, playing as the band Blood Brothers hit the stage.

Mike Zito (53) is an award-winning American blues guitarist hailing from St. Louis. His career is one of playing with multiple bands, collaborating with other great musicians, and recording and touring frequently. He writes most of his own material. His label-mate Albert Castiglia (54), hailing from Miami, is one of Mike’s many collaborators, and the pair have teamed up for this “Blood Brothers” tour, for which they recorded an eponymous album released back in March earlier this year.

From the first number the mood picked up considerably, and the place came alive. Announcing their intention to “play every damn song” off the record, they did exactly that over two glorious 50-minute sets. Two lead guitars, two contrasting vocalists, with bassist Douglas Byrkit and two drummers (Matt Johnson and Ephraim Lowell) was the recipe for a very high energy performance. The crowd were completely onside, with massive appreciative applause right from the very first number. Like all good bands they varied the pace, alternating fast and slow tracks, light and shade in the vocals, and mixing up some great driving boogie-woogie numbers with more nuanced and subtle songs. Both guitarists took their solos, introducing some blistering and catchy riffs, but it was obvious from all the body language on stage that these guys obviously enjoyed playing together, complementing one another perfectly, trading licks and grinning broadly all the while.

There was chat, there was inter-song banter, there were humorous stories about the genesis of some of the songs. And it provided just the right leavening between songs so you could get your breath back.

A standing ovation and encore were the only conclusion possible to such a great night. And the final number of Neil Young’s barn-storming “Keep On Rocking In The Free World” was probably the best live version of that song that you’re ever likely to hear.

A great night and a really stonkingly-good gig from a real powerhouse band.

Future Long Street Blues Club gigs:

Friday 3rd November 2023 Susan Santos & Alastair Greene

Saturday 18th November 2023 Russ Ballard Band

Friday 24th November 2023 Chicago Blues Trio

Saturday 16th December 2023 Fullhouse play Frankie Miller