Blood Brothers

The Alhambra

The most striking aspect of Willy Russell’s moving drama about fate, class and recession is that it begins and ends with the same scene.

Blood Brothers opens with two men lying beneath the shadow of the Liver Building, as a middle-aged woman stands between their lifeless bodies. From that moment you know the fate of the twin brothers at the heart of this play. For the tale of how they get there, you’ll need tissues.

Set in recession-hit 1980s Liverpool, Blood Brothers tackles the class divide within wider circles of destiny and superstition. Left to raise seven children alone, and with bailiffs in her living-room, Mrs Johnstone makes a fateful, ultimately tragic, decision.

Mickey Johnstone and Eddie Lyons are schoolboys whose chance meeting sparks an intense friendship. But while Eddie grows up with private school and university, blue-collar Mickey ends up an unemployment statistic and sinks into despair.

With a simple but striking set, strong performances, a haunting score and dialogue slipping from humour to poignancy, this powerful production showed why Blood Brothers remains a must-see show after 30 years.

Bradford actor Sean Jones has become the definitive Mickey, loveable as a scally and heartbreaking as a broken man.

Maureen Nolan triumphed again as poor Mrs Johnstone, and strong performances too from Mark Hutchinson as clean-cut Eddie, Danielle Corlass as sweet Linda, Tracy Spencer as nervous wreck Mrs Lyons and Kristofer Harding as the Narrator.

Moving stuff, and as relevant as ever. Runs until Saturday.