Blood Brothers (Grades 9–1) York Notes

The songs help the audience understand aspects of the plot but also allow the emotions and thoughts of the characters to be expressed.

‘Blood Brothers’ is in the form of a musical with a strong, hard-hitting story about poverty which may surprise an audience expecting a cheerful tale.

The Narrator plays an important part in ‘Blood Brothers’, commenting on the background to plot and characters, and emphasising the theme of fate and bad luck.

The language used by the two families is very different: the Johnstone family use informal vocabulary, the Lyons family more formal speech, demonstrating class differences.

‘Blood Brothers’ has a circular structure as the tragic outcome is given at the start and the play then tells how that outcome was reached.