"Blood Brothers" by Willy Russell.

Nottingham Trent University Students.

Nottingham Arts Theatre.

It's no secret to anyone who knows me that this is my all-time favourite musical, but this is not the musical, it's the play version, which is something that I've never seen in the past.

For anyone who doesn't know the story it's all about Mrs Johnstone who has several children and takes a job cleaning for Mrs Lyons. Just as she is making ends meet, Mrs J discovers that she is pregnant again, with twins. An agreement is struck between the two women that when the twins are born Mrs J would give one of the babies away to her employer, Mrs Lyons, who has discovered that she is having problems conceiving. Mrs Lyons then sacks Mrs Johnstone and moves away to the country with her husband and Eddie, the twin to Mickey. Thinking that this has separated the two forever turns out to be far from what she had planned.

The play version omits several characters that are visible in the musical and, in my opinion, reduces a lot of the humour that is in the musical. maybe that was Willy Russell's intention when writing the play as opposed to the musical; to make the story a more grave affair. 

Having seen the musical many times, not having Sammy, Mickey's elder brother, nor Mr Lyons seemed odd. The lead up to the ending was different as was the actual ending, although both brothers did die. Russell wrote the play first as something to be performed in schools and then expanded the story and characters to become a full blown musical, writing the songs and introducing characters that were only alluded to in the play version.

With some of the characters missing from the play version, that also meant chunks of the play was also excluded, and again for me meant that the catalyst of Mickey's downfall, the jail sentence, the crime, the dependency on drugs, the paranoia was wiped out and the plot jumped from one stage straight to the inevitable ending. You can see why Russell wanted to expand the play to draw out the grittiness.

The musical is still up there on top, but the play version doesn't match up. That however is no reflection on the Nottingham Trent University Drama Students.

The acting was great, a couple of times a little more projection was needed, but the Scouse accents, as well as the posh accents, were presented brilliantly. 

Daisy Donoghue plays Mrs Johnstone. The accent was lovely, as was the characterisation of Mrs Johnstone.

Mickey is played by Scott Lynam, and he really got inro the character of a seven, nearly eight year old. In contrast the older Mickey was full of angst and this was acted out with a good deal of tension between Mickey and Eddie.

Eddie is played by Robert Medhurst. Lovely upper class accent which made the swearing sound comical, which is the way it was written to sound. With both Scott and Robert the difference between the kids and the adult versions of the characters was presented very well.

Mrs Lyons is played by Nina Rhiannon. In the programme it states that "She enjoys playing evil, unstable or just generally unlikeable characters because.... villains have more fun". Well Nina must have loved playing Mrs Lyons because the rapid unhinging of Mrs Lyons was just wonderful to see. Nina really brought out the paranoia in Mrs Lyons, visually and physically.

Linda, the love interest for Mickey, and lust interest of Eddie, was played by Erin Salisbury. I think Erin would have loved the musical version of this play because there's so much more flirtatiousness in Linda in the musical than in the play. Another wonderful age shift from the frustrated teenage temptress to the stressed and worried wife, and mother to be.

Cam Devenish played the Narrator and every other part that was required; the milkman, doctor, housing officer etc. Cam was the only actor miked up, maybe that was to accentuate the "devilish" narration that haunted Mrs Lyons; at one stage haunting her as she sat in her chair, slowly going crazy, almost sneering. Every time I've seen the musical, the Narrator is almost like a shark, circling and homing in and relaying unnerving pieces of script, tightening the grip of madness. But is this character really there or just in Mrs Lyons head? Needless to say Cam created the unease brilliantly.

Directed by Claudia Perez-Garcia who presented a really worthwhile piece of theatre. I know that there were issues with licensing for the play granted very late, and I know that budget was, and always is with theatre groups, and not just university drama groups, not as generous as any Director would like, but on the whole was an entertaining piece of theatre. I am biased as I absolutely adore the musical, but this was something slightly different for me, and I am so glad that Claudia and the cast were brave enough to take this on so that I could tick this one off of my list.

"Blood Brothers - the Play" was at the Nottingham Arts Theatre for one night only. 

Thanks to Daisy and Claudia for arranging for me to be able to see the other side of this Willy Russell favourite.