AQA GCSE Drama sample

SET PLAY 2: ‘Blood Brothers’ by Willy Russell 2 Context Willy Russell has set his play in a working-class community in Liverpool , his own hometown. Liverpool was for many decades a thriving port city and supported many industries. The play spans the 1960s to the early 1980s. In the 1960s, Liverpool became internationally famous for its culture, particularly music by popular groups such as the Beatles. However, in the 1970s and early 1980s, Liverpool suffered a great economic decline (which some blamed on the Prime Minister at that time, Margaret Thatcher), which led to many lost jobs. Russell refers to this in the song ‘Take a Letter, Miss Jones’ when Mr Lyons fires a number of employees as ‘an unfortunate sign of the times’. At some points, the unemployment rate was as high as 50%. The recession heightened the differences between the working class and middle and upper classes. In ‘ Blood Brothers ’, Linda and Mickey, like Willy Russell himself, appear to attend a secondary modern, a state school for students who did not pass their 11 plus examination – a test that state school children took to establish their academic potential and future schooling. Edward attends a private boarding school, spending term times at school and returning home for the holidays. Russell highlights the contrasts between the two schools by cutting straight from one to the other, showing the differences between the students and the teachers. In the first act of the play, the Lyons and the Johnstones are shown to be living close to each other despite their different levels of wealth. At the end of the first act, the Lyons relocate to the countryside with Mrs Lyons hoping that a move away from the Johnstones will mean that Edward will not only avoid learning about his true mother, but also that he will mix with what she believes will be a better class of people. However, the Johnstones, who have probably been living in a small rented terraced house, are moved out to one of the suburban council estates that were being built, not far from where the Lyons now live and where Edward goes to school. The move away from inner-city areas was a government plan aimed at improving the quality of housing for the poor, but many residents missed the sense of community and the convenience of their city homes. TASK 2 a Look at the photographs of houses on this page. Select which ones best represent your idea of: i what the Lyons’ house might look like ii what the Johnstones’ house might look like. b Carefully read the scenes that take place within the Johnstone and Lyons houses. i List which props are mentioned in the text. ii What additional props could be added to create the context of homes? TIP When you are asked to reflect on the context of ‘ Blood Brothers ’ it is the context of 1970s Liverpool and its working-class community (as represented by the Johnstones) or the middle class (as represented by the Lyons) that you should discuss. 53 SECTION B STUDY OF A SET PLAY