Lyric show inspiring
BLOOD Brothers left the audience with stirred emotions on Friday night when Lyric Theatre completed its first performance of the award winning musical stage show.
Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers tells the story of twin boys separated at birth but connected throughout their lives by friendship, secrets and tragedy.
The show’s lively scenes and potent emotion were a testament to the entire team at Lyric Theatre, with direction by Peter McAlpine and musical direction by Elaine Epifano.
Leanne Horn, playing the twins’ birth mother, shone through her scenes with her strong acting and singing performance, while Christine Skicko ably took on the less sympathetic role of the class conscious adoptive mother, Mrs Lyons.
David Durrant sang with vigour and precision as the narrator who provides the audience with an unwelcome reminder that in life, as on buses, “there’s no getting off without the price being paid”.
Russell Hemming and Graeme O’Connor, as the “blood brothers”, skilfully portrayed the twin boys and their traits as they grew up in different environments divided by class.
The story of Blood Brothers begins in 1960s Liverpool, where Mrs Johnstone is pregnant with twins, her sixth and seventh children, when her husband leaves her.
She despairs of supporting seven children on the income she earns cleaning the house of Mr and Mrs Lyons, a wealthy couple struggling with infertility.
With terrible misgivings, Mrs Johnstone agrees to let Mrs Lyons secretly adopt one of the babies.
Out of guilt and secrecy, the women swear that neither child will ever know of the other’s existence “or they will both die”.
However, as the twin boys grow into adults, they continue to meet by chance, becoming best friends and swearing themselves “blood brothers”.
Twin Edward (played by Graeme O’Connor), who is strictly controlled by his adoptive parents, envies Mickey (played by Russell Hemming), who runs fairly wild, while Mickey envies Edward his privileged social position.
They continue to enrich and complicate each others’ lives until a final meeting when tragedy brings them together once again.
Although played by adults, the boys are first portrayed as seven years old, with the wonderful unselfconsciousness and physical humour of children.
Other cast members such as Madelaine Cantwell provided vigorous support to the rowdy games of spitting, shooting and fighting, while the makeup and costume departments provided muddy shins and shabby clothes.
The orchestra also brought great energy to the performance, changing gear quickly from pleasant ballads to a jarring clangour that set the nerves jangling.
Clever set construction and lighting let the setting change unobtrusively from a city slum to the open countryside where the characters hope to forget their troubles.
The audience enjoyed the show from the comfortable, tiered seating recently purchased by Lyric Theatre.
The performance group invites supporters to purchase a chair with a name plaque for $200, to help with the Lyric Theatre’s cost in purchasing the seating.
The show runs until September 20 at Mesley Hall, Leongatha.
Great show: from left, Wendy Jordan and Sue Sinclair, both of Inverloch, at the opening night of Lyric Theatre’s Blood Brothers.
Show audience: from left, Bree McRae of Tarwin Lower, Jaz Hendry of Cape Paterson and Stephen Loftus of Leongatha at the opening night of Lyric Theatre’s Blood Brothers.
Night out: from left, Keith Ritchie of Glen Alvie, Shane Doherty of Wonthaggi and Wayne Moloney of Glen Alvie at the opening night of Lyric Theatre’s Blood Brothers.
Show directors: from left, director Peter McAlpine and musical director Elaine Epifano after the successful first performance of Lyric Theatre’s Blood Brothers.
Opening night: some of the talent on show in Lyric Theatre’s musical Blood Brothers. From left, actor David Durrant, director Peter McAlpine and actors Leanne Horn, Russell Hemming and Graeme O’Connor.
Smart shooters: twins Edward Lyons (played by Graeme O’Connor, left) and Mickey Johnstone (played by Russell Hemming, right) with friend Linda (played by Madelaine Cantwell) engage in childhood antics.
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Posted by brad on Sep 8 2014. Filed under Arts & Entertainment, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
