A new Student Edition of Willy Russell's enduring 1983 play, Blood Brothers, offering accessible and vivid insights into the play and the context in which it was written through a C21st lens.As well as exploring the key themes, characters and dramatic devices of the play, and how they map onto our experience today, it conveys how groundbreaking 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.The commentary by Rebecca Hillman encourages students to:* consider what it must have been like to be at the very first performance of the play in a school classroom in Liverpool;* consider the significance of key phrases in the text, such as "living on the never never" and "the debt must be paid"* make comparisons between life in 1980s Britain and today - "the shrinking pound, the global slump and the price of oil";* think about what the play celebrates - friendship, family, community, neighbourhood* create their own show based on the story of Blood Brothers to engage their own communityThis edition offers a much-needed analysis of the play with a lens that today's students will appreciate and be inspired by.

ChronologyCommentarySocio-political landscape: Britain under Margaret ThatcherThemes: class and identity, family, nature v nurture, superstition v materialism, economic hardship (including strikes, debt, unemployment, cuts to the arts), fateCharacters: Mrs Johnston, Eddie, Mickey, Linda, Mrs LyonsDramatic devices: twins as framing device, monologue, the play as musical & rise of the mega-musicalDesign: lighting, sounds, costume, set, propsSimilar works (kitchen sink drama, working-class originated theatre& TV)Willy Russell: other worksProduction history, including first performance of the play in a classroom and Blood Brothers productions across the world (eg. South African production, 2013)PLAYTEXTNotes to the play