Blood Brothers (Grades 9–1) York Notes

Russell puts Mickey and Edward’s friendship at the centre of the play, ‘Blood Brothers’. The breakdown of that friendship leads to the ending which the play builds up to from the moment the Narrator reveals it in the opening scene.

Mickey and Edward become friends within minutes of their first meeting. They decide that, because they share a birthday, they will seal their friendship by becoming blood brothers. Neither of them realises that they are in fact twins, separated at birth. Mickey is even prepared to stand up to his older brother Sammy when he calls Edward a ‘poshy’. Mickey says that Edward is his ‘best friend’, showing that he is prepared to stand up to his impressive, intimidating big brother for this friendship.

Russell shows huge differences between the twins because of their very different upbringings. Mickey swears freely, which Edward thinks is ‘smashing’. The adjective ‘smashing’, and Edward’s plan to look up the swear word in the dictionary, strongly suggest that Edward comes from a middle class, educated background very different from Mickey’s. However, their differences are irrelevant to the two best friends.

Mickey and Edward continue to be best friends in their teenage years with many parallels in their lives. For example, both of them are suspended from their very different schools when they challenge the authority of their teachers. This shows again that, although they are different, they have very similar attitudes and personalities, reminding the audience that they are not just friends, but really are blood brothers.

One thing they have in common is their love of Linda. Mickey is too shy to tell her and Edward hides his feelings because of his friendship with Mickey. This is ironic because after the breakdown of their friendship near the end of Act Two, it is Edward’s affair with Linda which drives Mickey to shoot Edward dead by mistake.

Mickey and Edward’s friendship cannot stand the pressures of adulthood. As they turn eighteen, Russell highlights how they are drifting apart because of their different backgrounds. Edward goes to university while Mickey gets a job in a factory. When Edward returns from university, he finds that Mickey is married to Linda, who is pregnant, and that Mickey has been made redundant. They argue because Edward cannot understand the pressures that Mickey is under. Mickey calls him a ‘kid’ who hasn’t grown up because he ‘didn’t need to’. The word ‘kid’ suggests that Edward has not changed since the beginning of the play. He has a good life and does not really understand what is happening in Mickey’s life.

After this point in the play there is very little dialogue between Edward and Mickey, showing how far apart their lives have drifted and how damaged their friendship is. Edward becomes a councillor, while Mickey loses his job, commits a crime, is sent to prison and becomes hooked on antidepressants. This was a problem in the early eighties when the play was written. However Russell also highlights the damage it does to friendship and to family. It leads to Mickey’s final confrontation with Edward when they discover their true relationship.

The twins’ friendship and brotherhood cannot save their lives at the end of the play. Russell builds up their friendship for most of the play, creating a heart-warming story of two very different people’s bond of friendship. When their social class and circumstances drive that friendship apart, it is all the more tragic.