Teach Secondary Issue 14.3

It’s hard to imagine that Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers, one of the longest-running musical productions in West End history, was originally developed as a 70-minute school play first performed in Liverpool in 1981 for an audience of teenagers. Focused around fraternal twins separated at birth, Blood Brothers is alternately moving, funny and heart-rending – a classic story of nature versus nurture, adoption, identity, love and inequality that’s endured, and retained the privilege of being a set text for GCSE English Literature and Drama courses. Methuen Drama, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, has now published a revised Student Edition of Blood Brothers , complete with expert commentary that gets right to the heart of the complex topics the play grapples with. This edition commences with a short chronology and a perceptive introduction that clearly sets out what Blood Brothers is all about, breaking down the world Russell portrays. We then move into a concise historical overview of the period in which the play was written, touching on the political landscape, entrenched class divisions, poverty and social insecurity of the time. Elsewhere, there’s a chapter on form and genre explaining how Blood Brothers is a social realist text par excellence on one level, while also working as a folk ballad with an epic quality. It’s a drama where the ending is revealed at the very start, with much to learn, analyse and understand as we watch the preceding events unfold. This edition invites us to understand that while Blood Brothers has come to be seen as a Liverpudlian folk opera, Willy Russell effectively wrote the play for all the ‘Liverpools’ that exist throughout the world. We’re encouraged to see how, despite the drama’s clear specificity to place, the human interactions that play out make it timelessly relatable. Having garnered a reputation as ‘The standing ovation play’, this Student Edition also acknowledges Blood Brothers’ status as a bona-fide, globally acclaimed smash hit musical – albeit one that doesn’t shy away from difficult topics related to social upbringing, class, inequality and injustice. Over the course of many, many productions, it’s remained an extremely witty, often dark and deeply poignant work, still thematically resonant to life as it’s lived today and defiantly universal – however parochial its concerns might initially seem on the surface. Just reading the lines of this Student Edition, while seeing the production come to life in your mind’s eye, is enough to send shivers down your spine. In keeping with the quality of the text itself, this Student Edition is a class act – packed with lucid, easily digestible, yet valuable insights that will help students think about and analyse the meanings and intentions of the play with greater care. It’s also a welcome reminder of why Blood Brothers deserves to be part of our cultural DNA. A richly informative new edition of Willy Russell’s hugely influential play A T A G L ANCE DRAMA & ENG L I SH • A new Student Edition of a classic text, with expert commentary and accompanying notes • Features a chronology and introduction, plus notes on historical context, form and genre • Informed, modern analysis of the play’s topics and themes • Provides scope for further explorations of political theatre and classical tragedy Request your free inspection copy at bloomsbury.com/blood-brothers- 9781350386198 The supporting notes are highly accessible and rich with insights The well-judged chronology and historical overviews will equip students with valuable context for understanding the play in more depth Encourages critical engagement and more sophisticated comprehension of the text You are looking for an intelligible, digestible and readily accessible student text of Blood Brothers that gets to the heart of the play’s portrayals of class struggle and social inequality V E RD I C T UPGRADE I F . . . REVIEWED BY: JOHN DABELL Blood Brothers R E V I E W teachwire.net/secondary 80