Plot summary

Blood Brothers – Plot summary

Blood Brothers, a musical by Liverpudlian playwright Willy Russell, revolves around twin boys (Mickey and Edward) who are separated at birth and brought up in completely different environments in the city. The play, set in the 1960s, is divided into two acts, with songs throughout.

Mickey is brought up with his seven older siblings by his struggling single mother, Mrs Johnstone. His twin brother, Edward, however is brought up as the only child of the wealthy Lyons family, who live nearby, after Mrs Lyons persuaded Mrs Johnstone to hand over one of her twins at birth. Mickey and Edward don’t meet each other until they’re seven years old, but immediately become best friends and blood brothers. The bond continues when the boys are teenagers and both live in the countryside, despite them both being in love with Mickey’s neighbour Linda. However, as they get older, the huge difference in their backgrounds pulls them apart and eventually leads to their tragic deaths.

Social and historical context podcast

Written during a period of huge changes in society and politics, Blood Brothers draws the audience’s attention to the detrimental effect that social inequality can have on people’s lives. Listen to this podcast to learn more about the social and historical context in which Blood Brothers was written.

Key plot details

1. Mrs Johnstone, a struggling single mother of seven, finds out that she is pregnant with twins. Her employer, Mrs Lyons persuades Mrs Johnstone to give her one of the babies.
2. Mrs Lyons takes Edward and brings him up as her own, convincing her husband this is true. Mrs Johnstone goes back to work but fusses over Edward, leading to Mrs Lyons firing her.
3. Aged seven, Mickey and Edward meet and become best friends, along with Mickey’s neighbour Linda. The three get into trouble with the police when they begin to throw stones at windows.
4. Scared of Edward becoming close to his biological family, Mrs Lyons convinces her husband to move the family to the countryside. Soon afterwards, the Johnstones (and Linda’s family) are rehoused by the council.
5. As teenagers, Mickey and Edward meet again and they rekindle their friendship. Linda and the boys remain close throughout their teenage years before Edward goes to university.
6. After marrying a pregnant Linda, Mickey loses his factory job. Unemployed, Mickey is involved in a crime with one of his brothers, Sammy, and both are sent to prison.
7. Mickey becomes depressed and takes pills to help him cope, which he continues to take after being released.
8. After Mickey comes out of prison and starts a new job, Edward and Linda start a light romance. Mickey finds out and is furious so he finds Sammy’s gun and goes to find Edward at his workplace, the town hall.
9. Mrs Johnstone follows Mickey and tells him in front of Edward that they are twins. The police also arrive.
10. Mickey waves the gun around and it accidentally goes off, killing Edward. The police shoot Mickey. The twins both lie dead.

Act One – Mickey and Edward grow up

The play moves forward in time and we meet Mickey at the age of seven. He looks up to his older brother, Sammy, and plays games on the street with his neighbours, involving pretend guns. Mrs Johnstone tells Mickey he is not allowed to play near the big houses nearby. While he is sulking, Edward arrives outside the Johnstones’ home and the boys start talking. They quickly become friends and find that they share the same birthday. Unaware that they are really related, Mickey and Edward decide to become blood brothers.

When Mickey and Edward try to play together, both of their mothers realise who the other boy is and order them not to play together. However, when Mickey and his friend Linda go to Edward’s house, he sneaks out to play with them. They get caught throwing stones at windows by a police officer and he takes the children home. The police officer warns Mrs Johnstone that if any of her children (who are often naughty) get into more trouble then she could be taken to court. However when he takes Edward home, he tells Mr and Mrs Lyons that it was just a childish prank.

Question

What is the significance of the way the police officer treats the Johnstone family and the Lyons family?

Act Two

Act Two opens seven years later, when the twins are around 14 years old and in secondary school. The Johnstone family are much happier, although Sammy gets into trouble a lot, first at school and then with the police. Mickey and Linda are still friends and actually love each other, but Mickey is too shy to act on his feelings. After being rude to a teacher at his secondary modern school, Mickey is suspended. At the same time, Edward gets suspended from his boarding school for refusing to remove Mrs Johnstone’s locket. Mickey and Edward meet and quickly return to their close friendship. This time, Mrs Johnstone is happy for them to be friends.

Mickey, Edward and Linda spend their teenage years as best friends. Mickey leaves school and starts work at a factory, making cardboard boxes. Upset about leaving his best friends, Edward tells Mickey and Linda that he is going to university the night before he leaves. Even though he is secretly in love with Linda himself, Edward tells Mickey to ask Linda to be his girlfriend, showing how much he cares about his blood brother.

Mickey and Linda get married after Linda falls pregnant. Immediately afterwards, like many others, Mickey loses his job (in the song Take a Letter, Miss Jones, sung by Mr Lyons) at the factory as a sign of the times. Edward comes back from university and tries to have fun with Mickey but Mickey is angry and frustrated at being unemployed and Edward can’t understand why. Edward sees Linda and tells her he loves her, not knowing that she is married to Mickey and going to have his child.

Mickey is desperate to support his family and Sammy persuades him to be a lookout while he robs a garage. Sammy shoots someone and they are both arrested. Mickey is jailed for seven years. While in prison, Mickey becomes depressed and is given pills to help with this. After being released two years early for good behaviour, Mickey continues to take anti-depressants, upsetting Linda because she thinks they stop him being himself. Edward is now known as Councillor Lyons and Linda turns to him for help, he gets Mickey and Linda a council house and finds Mickey a job, all without Linda telling Mickey.

Linda and Edward start a light romance, which Mrs Lyons (who has gone mad with bitterness) reveals to Mickey, pointing them out to him. Furious at the betrayal of his best friend and wife, Mickey gets Sammy’s gun from its hiding place and goes to the council chambers to confront Edward. Mrs Johnstone follows Mickey and tells him that he and Edward are really twins. Mickey tells his mother that he wishes she had given him away instead of Edward. He waves the gun around in anger, pointing it at Edward as he shouts, I could have been him! The gun goes off and kills Edward. The police open fire and kill Mickey.

The play ends with the bodies of the twins on stage and the Narrator asking if superstition is to blame for their deaths or if it is really the class system.