BLOOD BROTHERS

Blood Brothers, a musical by Liverpudlian playwright Willy Russell, revolves around Mickey and Edward - twin boys who are separated at birth. Though their upbringings couldn’t be further apart they are reunited through an unlikely friendship, and with their familial relationship concealed by their parents because of superstitious beliefs, the pair find themselves irreversibly intertwined.

Written during a period of huge changes in society and politics, Blood Brothers draws the audience’s attention to the detrimental effect that social inequality can have on people’s lives. Russell wrote the show in 1981, and it was first performed as a musical in 1983. This was during the period that Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was in power. There was very high unemployment during this time, particularly in industrial working-class areas in northern England, such as Liverpool - where Russell is from and where the play is set. Mickey and his family represent the working classes, who were badly affected by the economic downturn, whereas Edward and the Lyons family embody the middle classes, who thrived in the 1980s.