Review: Blood Brothers at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre

Nov 24 2011 by Camilla Goodman, Buckinghamshire Advertiser

BLOOD Brothers has held a special place in my heart since I studied it at school. I was enthralled by the storyline, music and characters and still remember the first time I saw it on stage, more than 10 years ago. Therefore I was delighted to be given the opportunity to see it once again – I just hoped it would be as good as I had remembered it. I was not disappointed and, if anything, it was better.

The musical opens with the bodies of twins Mickey Johnstone and Edward Lyons on the floor. They are then covered up by undertakers and carried off, while Mrs Johnstone, played by 2007’s X Factor contestant Niki Evans, made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up with her version of the haunting Tell Me It’s Not True.

This really sets the dark tone that runs throughout the musical. The audience are immediately aware there is not going to be a happy ending as the narrator, who appears in every scene in the musical in the background watching over the characters, informs the audience that the twins die on the same day.

The mood is uplifted slightly after the opening when Mrs Johnstone begins to sing Marilyn Monroe. We learn how she used to have a husband with who she went dancing and they had seven children. However, when Mrs Johnstone discovers she is pregnant again – with twins – her husband leaves her.

She takes a job as a housekeeper at the Lyons’ house and it is not long until Mrs Lyons hatches her plan. Mrs Johnstone says she is worried about having to provide for two more mouths. Mrs Lyons is desperate for a baby and her husband is away until after Mrs Johnstone is due to give birth.

Mrs Lyons convinces Mrs Johnstone to give her one of her twins and makes her swear on the bible so she cannot go back on it.

We learn in the scene previous that Mrs Johnstone is superstitious, a theme that runs throughout the musical, when she is shocked by Mrs Lyons putting new shoes on the table. To make sure Mrs Johnstone does not expose the truth to anyone, Mrs Lyons, in her cunning way, tells Mrs Johnstone that if twins that are separated learn of the truth they shall both die – which gives the audience an indicator of how the story is to end.

Mrs Lyons tells Mrs Johnstone she can see the baby every day at work, but Mrs Lyons becomes paranoid and fires Mrs Johnstone and tries to keep her out of her life for good.

We next see the twins at age seven, nearly eight, when a twist of fate sees them bump into each other one day when out playing.

Mrs Lyons’ son Edward is a complete contrast to Mickey. Edward is well dressed, polite and well educated whereas Mickey is scruffy, has a poor education and knows swear words. Despite their contrast the boys have a connection and become ‘blood brothers’.

The mothers soon discover who their sons’ new best friend is and ban them seeing each other. However, children being children, this is not the case and they carry on to meet up.

The two actors who played Edward and Mickey were fantastic. Despite them both being in their late 20s/early 30s, you fully believed you were watching two seven year olds on the stage, and they were brilliant at portraying the twins relationship. The scene of them as children was probably my favourite in the whole musical, it was fun, provided a lot of laughs and had some very high standards of acting.

Mrs Lyons then becomes so fed up with Edward seeing Mickey that they move to the country. Both boys are left devastated but not for long, as the end of act one leaves with the Johnstones being told they have a new house in the country.

In act two, the boys are now teenagers and a girl is brought into the mix, Linda, who is in love with Mickey. Linda was another fantastic actor who was equally as brilliant at playing a hyper seven year old to a depressed woman in her 20s.

The start of act two follows the twins and Linda in their teenage years. Mickey finally plucks up the courage to ask out Linda after Edward gives him the confidence too, despite him also being in love with her. We then see Edward leave for university and the threesome make plans to have a big Christmas party when he returns, which Mickey offers to pay for because of his new job.

By the time Christmas comes, it has all gone wrong for Mickey and Linda. This is where that dark tone seen at the very start of the musical returns and remains for the rest of the musical.

Linda is pregnant and Mickey has lost his job at the factory. When Edward comes back he is still his usual happy self, but Mickey does not want to see him. He tells Edward he is 'just a kid' and needs to 'grow up'. This is where we first see Mickey jealous of Edward's life.

Mickey is then talked into an armed robbery by his older brother Sammy with the promise of getting some money. However, it all goes wrong and Mickey goes to prison. Mickey is in prison for several years and is highly dependent on anti-depressants. When he gets out of prison he refuses to stop taking the pills, which upsets Linda.

Linda calls Edward, who is a councillor, and the pair go for a walk. Mrs Lyons, intent on ruining the life of the Johnstones, spot the pair out together and tells Mickey about their close relationship. Mickey, delirious from the pills runs off to the council chamber to confront Eddie with a gun.

Over the public address in the theatre, you hear someone who is meant to be an officer telling Mickey to put the gun down, and some police walking through the stalls pointing guns at him. It made it all feel real and had me sitting on the edge of my seat.

When Mrs Johnstone hears of what has happened, she runs over and shouts “don't shoot him, he’s your brother”, the superstition planted by Mrs Lyons in act one then makes an appearance when Mickey accidently shoots Eddie and the police shoot Mickey.

We are then back to the opening scene of the musical, with the narrator giving the same speech about the twins. Despite knowing how the play ended, I still jumped with the sound of the gun shot and then cried at the death of the twins.

This proves the fantastic acting and production as a whole allowed me to get so involved that I really cared about the characters, and sometimes even forgot I was watching a play. If you ever get the chance to watch Blood Brothers I would highly recommend it.