I think most people know the story of the Johnson twins ……
Willy Russell’s timeless tale of the paths twin brothers lives take when
separated only to find fate keeping them together. It was originally written to be performed
within a very intimate setting, often in the round, and certainly without
elaborate sets, staging and music. Since
its humble beginnings, it has played to hundreds of thousands and gone from a
small story about class and superstition to a full blown modern opera regularly
attracting the biggest names in musical theatre. For sure, people enjoy the headliners; Marti
Pellow, Maureen Nolan, Niki Evans are the most recent to tour the nations
largest and grandest theatres, but it is when the story returns to its origins,
played by a young cast and on a pared down stage that the emotion and power are
unquestionable. For this production, the
Village Hall in Eaglescliffe was the venue and the brilliant Page2Stage
Performing Arts group were the headliners.
Right from the beginning, the characters felt real, as large
as life and utterly believable. There was no time, nor was there any need
for time, to grow into the story as from 1st curtain we were in Liverpool in
the 60's. The accents were spot on, never dropping into parody or
becoming comical and, with a sparse set, the focus remained solely on the
actors; you didn’t need an elaborate backdrop, nor did you need clever and
complicated lighting arrangements, the cast transported you into both the
humble terrace and the fancy posh house through simple, brilliant story telling
- I swear you could almost smell and taste coal fire smoke and street
dust.
For this production the main roles were double cast – often
this is to allow more of the cast to lead and enjoy the thrill of being centre
stage, but certainly in professional productions, this simply means two
different people playing the same part, same lines and same
characterisations. Not for Page2Stage –
the double casting for Blood Brothers tapped into each actors’ strengths and, through
the brilliance of Director Kelly, the two shows had very distinctly different
feelings. Sadly, two of the leads for
Saturday night were unable to perform (due to illness and an untimely coming
together of head and wall). This meant
there was some very last minute re-staging required yet, in total
professionalism, there wasn’t a dropped line, cue or beat throughout.
Night one, with Matty Dickens as Micky and Jacob Lynch as
Eddie had a very young and youthful approach – the story was very much about
two childhood friends whose lives take separate paths, one up, the other down,
who then meet again with very different outlooks on life. Recognising that their once inseparable
friendship had run its course, Micky shuns all Eddie’s offers of help and
eventually resents his once blood brother’s happiness. Despite Jacob having rehearsed for the 2nd
night casting and not previously played opposite Matty, the two lads had great
chemistry – the early childish pranks were just like best friends’ scrapes
whilst the later frustrations had a feeling of sad resolve that comes with
losing a friend.
Matty’s portrayal of the young Micky, complete with pretend
shooting, hero worship of his elder brother Sammy (wonderfully played both
nights by Fraser Belton as the edgy bully who surrounds himself with younger,
impressionable kids) and his awkward attempts at courting Linda were perfectly
angst forming. He was just a normal lad, happy in his own skin and content to
follow the paths of others before him and Matty has that natural, boyish charm
which makes him so believable. As he
suffers knock back after knock back he struggles to understand why the world is
against him; Matty avoids the temptation
to have Micky over analyse his fate and instead look for the easier targets to
blame; Eddie, Linda, his Mum, life itself – and so it is a quite young man who
lies dead in the final scene.
Micky on Sunday was played by Kane Smith and boy did Kane take
this role into the darkside – his early Micky still had the boyish fun,
innocent yet naughty but he was able to really accentuate Micky’s subsequent
descent into self, and world, loathing. In the full story, Micky becomes paranoid,
depressed, manic, reliant on prescription medication and self-destructive and
whilst the script was abridged to remove some of the more adult scenes Kane
kept the intensity and utter despair rarely seen in even the most professional
performances. His refusal to accept
Linda’s unconditional love was heart-breaking and gave the final scene the
tear-jerking emotion the show is famous for.
Jacob, as Eddie, brilliantly brought the counterpoint to
Micky’s street smarts – he was foppish, innocent, aloof, unsure of himself and
obviously protected from the real world by his paranoid mother. Through the progression from 7 (almost 8)
year old to university student, company owner and eventually councillor Jacob
ensured that Eddie never loses the feeling that this just isn’t him, he’s still
Micky’s friend from the old days and can’t understand why his desire to help is
always rebuffed. Jacob is wonderfully
adept at responding to his opposite cast; having rehearsed with one Micky he
adapted expertly to the other and never lost the connections between the 2
brothers.
I think the character of Linda is the hardest to play in the
whole show – Linda goes from tomboy to lovestruck teenager to newly-wed young
mother to widow all in the space of just over an hour and it is testament to
both Linda's – Jessica Bayley on Saturday and Alicia Percy on Sunday – that you
were never in doubt that you were watching the life of this young woman start,
form and then be ripped apart. Just how
either Mickey could take so long to get with such attractive Linda's must be
down to brilliant acting (and no little resolve) not to mention that Jessica
has a mean right hook which Matty’s left cheek can play testimony to.
The boys’ mother, Mrs Johnson, was played on both nights by Florence
MacMahon and, as the glue that holds the whole story together, Florence was
amazing. Mrs J opens the show and in
that one scene has to set the backstory, the current predicament, show the
desire to get out of her current life and demonstrate that, despite being on
hard times, she will do anything to make her children happy. Florence, like
many of the cast, has an uncanny ability to visibly age on stage without any
change in makeup or costume, her acting moves her from young mum to concerned confidante
to destroyed parent and was a powerful and moving performance.
Mrs Lyons, Eddie’s ‘adopted’ mum, was played by Chloe Handley
on Saturday and Penny Eastbury on Sunday.
Both girls approached the role differently and this, as mentioned
earlier, helped to cement the double casting approach. Chloe was wonderful as the upper middle class
housewife and showed Mrs Lyons’ obsession on portraying the ‘proper’ social
etiquette when in reality knowing that it is only her husband’s money on which
her standing is built. Chloe had a clever way of having Mrs Lyons talk very
calmly and yet being quite animated; a trait that many people who are begging
for acceptance use and this gave her version of Mrs L a fragile desperation to
keep hold of what she’s got.
Penny’s portrayal of Mrs Lyons was that of a woman very
confident in her own standing, her husband was fortunate to have her at home
and as such whatever she wants she gets.
She had an edge which said “get in the way and I will hurt you” , a real
snobbish view of the world and this extended to her willingness to break up
Micky & Linda if it meant retaining her status quo – in fact it is her
actions that creates the juxtaposition resulting in the death of both boys – if
she hadn’t been so obsessed with Mrs Johnson and Micky being near her (and her
previous association with and reliance on the lower classes) she would have
allowed nature to take its course without ever needing to get involved.
Of course, anyone who has seen the show will know that there
is an undercurrent of superstition and impending doom throughout, ably provided
by the narrator. This character
constantly reminds us that this is not a nice, simple tale of family values,
that there bargains have been made and debts need to be paid. The standout performance in both shows was by
Ollie Mawson who took this role and totally made it his own. Ollie belies his tender age to give a truly
mesmerising performance, even as he walks slowly onto stage behind the main
cast he has all eyes on him as we await his next prophetic soliloquy – mean,
menacing and with an evil enjoyment in his work.
The rest of the cast were made up by the ensemble, all of whom
were mark & cue perfect and ensured that the story never dropped in pace or
intensity. Maya Darley, Harriet Claydon, Luca Howlett and Alfie Lovett gave the
richness of ensemble normally associated with a much larger group. This meant that, whilst the showtime was just
over an hour, it never felt that this was Blood Brothers ‘Lite’, nor did the
abridgements detract from the story, the emotion or the sense of having just
been told a great story.
Page 2 Stage Performing Arts group is a creative youth theatre, not just a
‘drama club’. The group is about raising
students confidence and self belief through a learning process that encompasses
all elements of the arts, with a slightly stronger focus on drama. In the
past they have looked at a range of different genres and has incorporated
filmmaking, dancing, singing and improvised theatre in performances as
well as scriptwriting. The primary aim of the group is to provide a safe
environment which allows the students to grow as individuals and gain
confidence in themselves through the arts.
They are always looking for new members – visit their Facebook page for
more details -
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