Willy Russell – devizine.com

by Ian Diddams
images by Ann Ellison.

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.