Blood Brothers Musical and Classism - Stevie Hardwich

Blood Brothers is a musical set in the 1960s in England. It begins with a maid, Mrs. Johnson,

worrying about her current pregnancy as she already has 7 children she is struggling to support.

Once she finds out she's pregnant with twins, she explains her situation with her employer,

Mrs. Lyons, and expresses her worries. Mrs. Lyons is desperate for a child, but she has been

unable to conceive and her husband doesn't want to adopt. However, he is overseas at the

moment for many months. While Mrs. Johnson explains that she cannot care for both children,

Mrs. Lyons suggests that Mrs. Johnson gives one child to her. Mrs. Johnson agrees, and tells her

children that one twin didn't survive. Mrs. Johnson soon begins to regret this as she continues to

work as Mrs. Lyons maid. Mrs. Lyons thinks that Mrs. Johnson is spending too much time with t

he twin, Edward Lyons, and fires her. Edward meets his twin, Mickey, and they become friends,

despite the mothers' attempts to keep them away from each other. Mrs. Lyons decides that they

need to move away from the Johnsons, and convinces her husband that the countryside would

be better for them. The Johnson family is rehomed to the same countryside through a

government program. Mickey and his friend find Edward once again, and their friendship is

renewed, as is Mrs. Lyons' paranoia. Later, Edward goes to college, and Mickey struggles with

a pregnant girlfriend and loses his job. Eddie comes home, and Mickey realizes how different

they are, and they end their friendship. Micky takes part in a robbery gone wrong in an attempt to

get more money, and is an accessory to murder. He is arrested and diagnosed with severed

depression, which he is medicated for. He is released early, and comes out with an addiction to

the pills he was prescribed with in prison. His wife, Linda, contacts Eddie for help, and he's

able to get Mickey a job and a house. Eddie and Linda get closer and reveal that they have

both liked each other for sometime. Depending on the play, they either sleep together or

simply kiss each other. Either way, Mickey finds out about their affair from Mrs. Lyons, and he

leaves to find Eddie. Eddie is giving a speech when Mickey interrupts with a gun, claiming t

hat he knows that Eddie and Linda had an affair. His mom, Mrs. Johnson, comes in and

explains that they are twins in an attempt to calm Mickey down. Instead, he says,

"You. You! Why didn’t you give me away? I could have been…I could have been him!" He then

shoots his brother, and is shot by the police directly after. 

This story explores classism through the lens of identical twins. One twin is given a privileged

lifestyle and becomes successful. The other twin is born poor, and ends up in prison.

They were identical, and poverty is the reason they were split up at birth, and it led to their

eventual deaths. 

Mrs. Lyons was an incredibly selfish character, despite claiming all she ever wanted was a child.

She purposefully separated the birth mom from her child, and did everything she could to keep

the twins apart. Eventually, her obsession with her son led to his murder by his own brother. 

While the ending was tragic, I don't believe a truly happy ending was possible, unless

Edward had left Mickey behind for good. But they were long-lost twins who became close friends. Had the Johnsons been struggling financially so much, they would've been able to afford both twins, and Mickey wouldn't have helped his brother rob a bank. The plot would be a different story.