BLOOD BROTHERS AT THE ARTS THEATRE CAMBRIDGE
Something timeless happens in Blood Brothers. It is almost a ritual it is so powerful, most of the audience had seen it several times before but the compulsion to watch this visceral story is irresistible. Author Willy Russsell conceived the idea in a flash, “I was walking one day . I lifted my right foot and by the time I put my foot down I had the story. Something that happens very very rarely”
This spontaneous, quasi-spiritual inspirations explains the depth of the emotion in this play/musical. The kernel of the narrative feels as if it reaches back into time itself.
Two brothers separated at birth are secretly separated. They live out their lives in parallel worlds. One as the youngest of a large poor family, his mother a hard working cleaner. The other from the same mother enjoys a privileged existence at private school and university. The entire play, the narrator tells us is not about destiny but about class. But finally it is up to the audience to discover what the secret of this compelling saga means to them.
Willy Russell understands the compulsive draw of the story, ‘ People do see it more than once and one of the reasons is that it is a musical with a strong book, it has got a tale to tell. It simply relies on that that primal ageless universal thing ‘ I’m going to tell you a story’ Your ears prick up and you stay with it and there’s no better experience.”
That in a nutshell is the secret of its success. It has been performed all ove the world as the author tells us, “ it’s the musical for people who hate musicals’. Surely that’s because whilst the orchestra is subtle and subdued the songs are few and far between and the main theme simply builds from a few bars into the climactic chorus of searing passion that is the finale. ‘Tell me it’s not true so” For my money the entire male chorus in the dole queue singing with deep irony about their devastating dismissal is the best song in the show. Heartfelt passionate and unusually loud for this mercifully quietly pitched musical.
Niki Colwell Evans as Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers
Of course it’s the performers who bring it all to life. Niki Colwell Evans brings a heartbreakingly convincing warmth to the all -important mother role in the show. So many have given this character their all over the years, but as a first timer to Blood Brothers I can’t imagine how they could improve on this wonderful singer/actress/performer. She exudes humanity and bravery. No wonder people were in tears. It has to be said the play does rely on a well trodden sad trope, the loss of a child. And Willy Russell works the idea of a woman who knows her son but cannot acknowledge him. It appears in Victorian play East Lynne from when a fugitive wife, Lady Isabel disguises herself to tend to the child she left . When he falls fatally ill she utters the now time honoured cry “Dead and never called me Mother’, widely parodied of course but the same searing sentiment as Mrs. Johnstone as she contemplates her slain son.
Unusually, I can reveal this detail as a reviewer as it’s the first information we get as the stage is revealed.
Sean jones as Mickey is superby, versatile and so convincing as a child and teenager and later an adult man. He is quite simply brilliant. In fact the scenes with the children are the most intriguing of the play and rely on some superb performances from the cast including of course the other brother played by Joe Sleight and the older brother Sammy Timothy Lucas not to forget lovely Linda their childhood companion and later lover played with joyous simplicity by a stunning Gemma Brodrick.
Blood Brothers like Cain and Abel is a mythic rite of passage and simply cannot be missed. It is propaganda for a better more equal society, a poster for the unfairness of life in Britain but most of all an emotional reminder of our common humanity and the way in which we are formed and failed by society.
At the Cambridge Arts Theatre until Saturday 5th August; cambridgeartstheatre.com
