Blood Brothers

Designed to be both accessible and comprehensive, this Study Guide provides an extended narrative on the content, structure, context, tone and themes of Willy Russell’s 1983 play-with-music,Blood Brothers. The play was premiered at Liverpool Playhouse before transferring to London, where it enjoyed a long-running production in the West End.

Confronting issues such as class, education, growing up, nature versus nurture, and fate, this is an important play for our times and, in particular, the younger generation.

This Study Guide focuses on elements such as the play’s characters, themes, language and dramatic techniques, and is tailored specifically to the demands and requirements of students experiencing this play for the first time, making it an informative guide of real value to students of all abilities and levels. It will offer detailed information and analysis of key aspects of the play, considering it not only as written literature, but also as a text written for the theatre.

Eminently readable and carefully structured into clearly labelled sections, this guide offers a wealth of information about the most significant and relevant aspects of the play, contextualising them with important background information about the period when it was written and the playwright’s own ideas.

Moreover, the guide draws on the views and experiences of critics, actors and directors who have worked on and studied the play, as well as the playwright himself. Above all, this guide will open up Russell’s text, through a range of suggested activities and questions which will allow the student to develop his or her own personal and informed opinions, and help them to construct their own arguments.