Blood Brothers

Willy Russell's 1983 play with music tells the story of twin brothers separated at birth because their mother cannot afford to keep them both. One of them is given away to wealthy Mrs Lyons and they grow up as friends in ignorance of their fraternity until the inevitable quarrel unleashes a bloodbath.

After its premiere at the Liverpool Playhouse, the musical has gone on to receive productions around the world and ran for decades in London's West End, as well as extensively touring the UK.

This revised Student Edition includes a commentary by Rebecca Hillman, which offers accessible and vivid insights into the play and the context in which it was written through a 21st-century lens. As well as helping us appreciate the play today, it also conveys how how ground-breaking Blood Brothers was at the time in representing working-class lives on stage, as well as explicitly exposing the flaws of the British class system.

Chronology
Introduction
Historical Context
Genre and Form
Social Realism
A Folk Ballad?
Themes
Superstition and Fate
Class
Debt
BLOOD BROTHERS
Notes