BLOOD BROTHERS at The CHURCHILL THEATRE, BROMLEY
Tickets: Paid for
Date: 1st March 2023
Seat: D1 (Stalls)
Star Rating: 5
If you're looking for a gut-punch of a show, look no further than Blood Brothers, playing at The Churchill Theatre in Bromley until Saturday 4th March. This is where you'll find the rawest of emotions and the starkest of stories. And yet, within all the turmoil and the grime and the many, many mistakes the characters make, there is also humour and humanity. This is a powerful show that plunges into the soul of what it means to be born and how nature versus nurture plays a part in every move we make.
That sounds incredibly deep, doesn't it? It sounds like you'll be sitting down to watch something that will tear your soul apart and leave you broken. Perhaps that's true because by the end of Blood Brothers, as the last devasting and devasted note of 'Tell Me It's Not True' rang out across the auditorium, I felt wrung out. In a good way. I love it when the theatre makes you feel something, and this show most certainly did.
The Story
Without giving too much away for those who have not yet had the pleasure of seeing Blood Brothers, the story revolves around Mickey and Eddie, twins who were separated at birth because their mother, Mrs Johnstone, could only afford one more child and her employer, Mrs Lyons, desperately wanted one. It sounds like the ideal plan, and what could possibly go wrong?
A lot can go wrong. Because, you see, if separated twins are ever to find their other half, they will both immediately die. Superstition? Maybe. The story will tell us.
The Set
I loved the set for Blood Brothers. The stage is on a slight incline, helping everyone see every single moment. That also helps with perspective, ensuring that children seem like children and adults seem like adults - a big and important distinction.
Terraced houses line each side of the stage, and the Liver Building looms large in the background, reminding us (as if the impeccable accents weren't enough) that this story is set in Liverpool. One house in particular, number 27, is crucial to this plot. This is where the Johnstones live, and the door opens and closes multiple times throughout the show. From my seat, I could just see a dark and dingy hallway stretching back into the house. My mind could conjure up exactly what everything else in there would look like.
Other set pieces were flown down from the rafters to show Mrs Lyons' house, the council offices, Mickey's living room, and a prison. These were effective and worked well combined with excellent lighting showing literally light and dark shades of these people's lives.
The Performances
I was lucky enough to see Paula Tappenden play Mrs Johnstone (usually a part performed on this tour by Niki Colwell Evans). She was spectacular. In most performances, she takes the part of Mrs Lyons, and these two characters are as different as different can be - I'm impressed that she is able to do both parts justice.
Paula Tappenden was a standout in a show full of standouts. In the finale, she sunk to her knees and sang with tears rolling down her face - a feat I'm not sure many can manage. She portrayed Mrs Johnstone with an underlying vulnerability that made the audience remember that she is younger - emotionally and physically - than she might appear or have to act.
With Paula Tappenden playing Mrs Johnstone, that meant we had Gemma Brodrick playing Mrs Lyons. She was fantastic. Cunning and manipulative with just the right amount of charm thrown on, she was able to make it seem easy to emotionally blackmail a young mother into never telling anyone she had 'sold' one of her children. Using her power and privilege, she got what she wanted, and when it all starts to fall apart, and her adopted son, Eddie, is pulled back to where he came from, her descent into paranoia and hysteria is a believable one. Her betrayal of her son was chilling.
Sean Jones was another amazing talent. Playing Mickey, the son who was left with his mother and not given a life of luxury, he was able to believably portray a seven (nearly eight!) year old as well as a broken, drug-addicted young man. He ran the gamut, and it was fascinating to watch his decline as he 'grew up' and then fell down. For one person to be able to change his tone, his physicality, and his demeanour on the stage to show that he was growing up and changing was impressive to watch.
Although all the cast was superb, my final standout performance has to be Richard Munday as the Narrator. Standing just to the side of the action (mostly), his chilling words gave me goosebumps, and his particular brand of blue/white lighting was a certain signal that bad things were going to happen. Was he an angel? The devil? I'm not sure, but he was excellent in his menacing striding around, and right from the opening, the audience knows he is someone to be wary of, if not downright scared of.
Final Thoughts
Willy Russell's Blood Brothers is closing in on 40 years old, and it has been performed over 10,000 times in the West End alone. There is something about this story that resonated with audiences in the 1980s and still does today. The themes of despair, love, friendship, guilt, hopelessness, fresh starts, class, and more are all just as relevant today as they ever were. The story of hard economic times and lost jobs and haves and have-nots rings true. We never learn, and Blood Brothers is a beautifully rendered reminder of that.
Book your tickets to this five-star show at The Churchill, Bromley - you don't want to miss it: https://churchilltheatre.co.uk/Online/tickets-blood-brothers-bromley-2023
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