Blood Brothers Play Guide for AQA GCSE Drama

TEST YOURSELF B4 From your understanding of the play and the contexts described here, answer the following questions: 1 Whose new address is going to be 65 Skelmerdsale Lane? 2 Who goes on the dole? 3 Who attends a secondary modern school? 4 Who attends a boarding school? 5 Who goes to university? 6 Who dictates a letter firing workers? 7 Who earns the money in the Lyons household? 8 What opportunities does Edward have that Mickey doesn’t? SECTION B STUDY OF A SET PLAY: BLOOD BROTHERS 31 Unemployment 4 In the 1970s, many factories and businesses in Liverpool closed. 4 Liverpool became an area of particularly high unemployment. 4 The working class was hit hard by the loss of jobs in factories and on the docks. 4 ‘Being on the dole’ meant that you were out of work and receiving unemployment support or other benefits. Women’s roles Housewives in Liverpool, 1962 5 4 In the 1960s, there were some improvements in women’s rights, including, for example, movement towards equal pay which was partly prompted by successful strikes such as that at the Ford factory in Dagenham in 1968. 4 In 1975, the Sex Discrimination Act was passed which was intended to eliminate sex discrimination in employment and to provide equal opportunities for men and women. 4 Attitudes to women’s roles did not universally change, however. A UK survey in 1984 showed that almost half of those who answered felt that it was a man’s job to earn money and a woman’s job to look after the home. 4 The role of wife and mother was considered the most important to many. It was still a common assumption that a woman would stay at home once she had children. 4 Marilyn Monroe (1926–62), a Hollywood film star who is referred to in the play, was considered a feminine ideal to many due to her beauty and sexual appeal. The theme of social class One of the important themes of Blood Brothers is social class. The economic recession of the 1970s hit working-class families particularly hard. By the early 1980s, a Liverpool MP reported to Parliament that one in every five Liverpool families was on benefits and in some poorer areas as much as half of the working population was unemployed. Middle-class families, such as the Lyons, generally weathered the economic setbacks with more ease. Although the houses of different social classes might be near each other, they would often lead very different lives, from the types of school they attended, to how much money they had to spend on clothing, food or luxury items. Task B5 Locate three incidents in the play that show the differences between Edward’s and Mickey’s lives, including the opportunities they have. Write three to five sentences explaining how you could use the play’s social context to emphasise the differences. Consider, for example: • costume • hair and make-up • set design • acting techniques. An unemployment protest at the Tate and Lyle factory in Liverpool, 1976 5