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Blood Brothers
Revision
Themes Class divide
Family Growing up
Superstition and Fate Hopes and Dreams
Nature versus Nurture Love and Marriage
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Characters
Mrs Johnstone
Mickey
Other children including Sammy and Donna-Marie
Linda
Mrs Lyons
Mr Lyons
Edward Lyons
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Narrator
Chorus to play minor roles such as Miss Jones
Motifs
Marilyn MonroeGuns - toy and
realThe idea of gamesDancing
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Techniques
Parallel scenes to bring out class differences
Use of key episodes to give a flavour of life, since play covers a long period of time
Use of songs
Use of motifs
Narrator and chorus
Flashback – starts with final scene
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Language
The working class characters speak in Liverpool dialect, which makes them sound natural, warm and likeable.
The middle class characters speak in standard English, with Received Pronunciation. This is a cause of humour when the boys first meet.
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The Role of the Narrator Comments on the action
Tells the story and involves the audience
Links episodes together
Warns of danger by appearing on stage at crucial times
Points out themes
Asks audience questions
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What do the songs add to the
Play?
Link scenes and draw parallels
Remind the audience of key themes
Link the two halves of the play by using some of the same words / tunes, such as ‘Easy Terms’
Mood and atmosphere
Humour and pathos
Fill in parts of the plot
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The tragic outcome is inevitable from the very start. Discuss.
Theme of Superstition and Fate
Starting with final scene
Continual warnings from the narrator
The Marilyn Monroe motif
The gun motif
Nurture – Johnstone family are in trouble from the start. E.g. Sammy’s behaviour and Mrs Johnstone’s fears for Mickey
Class divide
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To what extent do you feel
sympathy for Mrs Johnstone? At the start, very little: ‘a stone in place of a heart’, but
gradually, as the story unfolds, we feel much more:
Husband walks out leaving her with little money
Mrs Lyons pushes her into it
She does it ‘for the best’
She’s a loving mother to all her children
She stays cheerful and makes the best of things
But do we also feel she could have controlled her children better, been harder on them?
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What does this play have to say
about class? The class divide is unfair
Russell shows that two people with identical DNA can be so different in what they achieve because working class people were denied the chances to develop
Russell poses the question: ‘could it be what we, the English, have come to know as class?’
Money can’t buy love but it can buy power.
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Now you try…
What has this play to say about mother / child relationships?
How is the theme of love presented? You may consider family love, romantic love and married love.
How far do you think Russell presents the working class characters in a more favourable light than the middle class characters?
Can you think of any other questions?
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