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Blood Brother

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Blood Brother Performance Essay On the 14TH June 2012, we watched Blood Brothers, by Willy Russell, at the Phoenix Theatre. The play ‘Blood Brothers’ is set in 1980s Britain; it deals with numerous themes such as fate, the class system, insanity, superstition and division. The genres of the play are drama, tragedy & comedy-to an extent. Something I found particularly interesting was how the genre of comedy became less and less apparent as the play went on, whereas the genre of tragedy- became more and more apparent as the play went on-the opposite. The play was a musical. I didn’t have any expectations of the play prior to watching it, as I believe art and especially performance art revolves around an experience, a new experience, …show more content…

Her adaptation of voice is ensuingly, hugely responsible for her overall characterisation of Miss Johnston being so phenomenal. Through this characterisation, Miss Johnston made several of the themes more understandable. An example of when the actress’s’ characterization was particularly effective was towards the end, during the scene of Mickey & Edwards death, when she revealed to them, they were brothers. When she did this, her eyes welled up with tears, her voice trembled and her body convulsed; my eyes were fixed on her. I believed her, so much that I began to feel great sympathy for her. She was able to portray an emotion, and cause it to the same emotion, to be evoked by the audience. Mrs Lyons was played exceptionally well; she helped me to understand several themes of the play-primarily class. Mrs Lyons was of a higher class, than Miss Johnston and this came through, through her movement-the manner in which, she manoeuvred around the stage. Mrs Lyons-unlike Miss Johnston would always walk with her head held high in the air and her shoulders back; her posture was always sustained and sharp, apart from when she began to derail mentally. Very often Mrs Lyons, would be alongside Miss Johnston-who was of a working class background, and through the actress’ characterization, I was able to see a contrast between the two women. This helped me to understand the theme of class. When Mrs Lyons began to derail

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