Blood Brothers

Say twin brothers were separated at birth and one was raised rich while the other was raised poor. What would happen if they met? In bleak post-war Liverpool, a young mother in her sixth pregnancy is abandoned by her husband. She finds work housekeeping for a childless rich woman, whose envy and desperation drive her to trick the mother into giving up one of her twins, setting up an inescapable fate.

Queanbeyan City Council’s production of Blood Brothers begins with hymn-like harmonies and reverence, with the cast in rough formation facing the audience. The first character walks awkwardly across the stage to hand a rose to the woman in the centre—and that is just about the last opportunity the audience has to not be fully engaged. From the second Christine Forbes takes the flower, you’re in. Blood Brothers has been running continuously in the West End for over two decades on the strength of a honed sharp script and driving catchy music. Oh, it’s manipulative all right – author Willy Russell has used every narrative trick there is: foreshadowing, varying light and dark tone, recurring metaphors for poignant effect, social commentary, gritty reality, mystery, pathos, humour, great music and narrative hooks galore. Superstition, bad luck and payback for past mistakes are all part of the plot of this good, old-fashioned morality musical.

Stephen Pike’s direction doesn’t flag for a second, and there is no weak link in the cast. Christine Forbes as Mrs Johnstone drives the opening sequences with a warm alto, bearing herself with tragic dignity. Sarah Golding, with a high, clear voice, rounds out Mrs Lyon’s character with a fragility and desperation that drives her to evil acts. Peter Ricardo initially plays up the comic traits of rich twin Eddie, and then fleshes him out with humanity and rebellion in the second act. Poor twin Mickey Johnstone is a meatier challenge, and 16-year-old Ben Kindon was incredibly strong in the role, convincingly and empathically bringing Mickey from childhood via awkward adolescence and into his thirties and various misfortunes.

When they first appear, Eddie, Mickey and Mickey’s siblings are less than ten-years-old, and director Stephen Pike has made the children particularly manic and exaggerated. In the initial moments, the jerking and leaping was a little distracting, but as the characters speak and engage, it becomes easier believe that in this stylised reality, that’s what kids are like. After the mindset clicks in, the mania drives very watchable energy and physical comedy. It seems a neat device to make the child characters not only appear younger than the adults (some of whom are shorter), but also to distinguish them from their own later, more mature incarnations.

The set is stylised and economical, with a brick house with stairs and a doorway for the Johnstone’s residence, concrete steps and an ornate fireplace to represent the interior of the Lyon’s house, and behind and looming over all this, a multi-chimney factory with a roof set at a rakish angle and a simplified, appropriately 1950s-graphic style, all in a dour Liverpudlian grey brick. The lighting moves from more naturalistic pools of light to dramatic up- and back-lighting of blue and purple as the narrator, played with menace by Roy Hukari, belts out passages foreshadowing tragedy to come. The amplification, band and sound management were excellent: this deaf viewer lost a hearing aide before the show, and yet didn’t miss a word.

Let your heartstrings drag you through this. Forget that you’re being toyed with and enjoy a beautifully crafted piece. This is a very professional piece of amateur theatre and well worth navigating through a Canberra blizzard out to Queanbeyan to catch. Bring a coat, tissues and don’t bother with the mascara.

Cathy Bannister

Images: (Top) Ben Kindon as Mickey and Peter Ricardo as Edward in Blood Brothers. (Lower) Christine Forbes as Mrs Johnstone breaks good news to her children in Blood Brothers.

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