‘Blood,’ comedy entrances

Take a step back to 1960s Liverpool, where the penny is born in your pocket. 

The international hit “Blood Brothers” opened Friday at the Ruth N. Halls Theatre, showing an audience of 350 how the luck of class placement has the power to interrupt families and brotherhood.

The plot is similar to the biblical story of the judgment of Solomon, in which a baby boy was proposed to be divided in half for two mothers. The barren baroness, the wealthy Mrs. Lyons, played by junior Julia Mosby, made a seemingly soundproof deal with her housemaid, pregnant with twins.Senior Mandy Striph plays the housemaid, Mrs. Johnstone.

Little did they foresee the burdens brought on by taking a child from their natural mother.

“It was phenomenal, the bond between the two mothers, that natural love couldn’t die and how the acquired mother’s fear ultimately led to destruction,” Bloomington resident Gladys DeVane said.

Despite the stubble on the young men’s faces, their characters began at age seven, or “nearly eight,” so the Johnstone twin Mickey, played by junior Martin Brent, protested.
As the play proceeds from childhood to manhood, Brent said switching ages was challenging, but he was able to base the youthful parts of his character on experiences growing up in a family of eight children.

Although raised differently, twin brothers Mickey and Eddie share eyes for one girl. The girl in the middle, Linda, played by freshman Brianna McClellan, was the childhood playmate of the boys and developed with them through thick and thin.

Sex icon Marilyn Monroe was featured repetitively throughout the play for reasons only known to playwright Willy Russell, a Liverpool native. Even sophomore Matt Birdsong, who played Eddie, and freshman Taylor Crousore, who played Sammy, debated the mystery of including Monroe in the play.

However, Russell portrays obvious themes of everyday reality. The greatness of being young and fearless is crushed by the weight of a pink slip as an adult.

“He tells complex stories about simple people with which we can easily identify,” Director Murray McGibbon said.

The narrator, played by junior Matthew Martin, drove the play on the course of its inevitable fate. Much foreshadowing was used, starting with the initial film screen flickering a trio interchangeably pointing a gun.

The narrator was like the devil, sophomore Maddy King said. She added that he made the audience ask, “What if?”

The music and the script went hand-in-hand as the songs carried along the plot.
“The music was more an accentuation of the words,” Birdsong said.

Superstition and hairsplitting humor brought the audience to their knees for “Blood Brothers.” 

“I’m not stepping on any cracks anytime soon,” freshman Kasie Ashton said.