Willy Russell's 1983 musical Blood Brothers charts the intersecting life courses of twin brothers cast apart at birth. Their mother is the central figure, a straight-shooting heroine of the lower classes. Left by her husband, she makes ends meet, but not enough to keep both of her newborn twins. One goes to her childless employer. She's sworn to secrecy about the deal. The boys meet by chance a few years later and become firm friends, before the class division in which they grew starts to have disastrous consequences.
This production should be a knock-out. The cast, boasting guns Helen Dallimore as Mrs Johnstone, Bobby Fox as Mickey and Michael Cormick as the Narrator, is sensational. They deliver with technical prowess, garnering cohesion and spark as an ensemble. Their work provides a window into the epic scope and honesty of the piece. It's almost fresh, despite its age and familiar themes.
But Anna Gardiner's functional set reads like a Neighbours sound stage here, and the lighting rig doesn't seem to afford Christopher Page much flexibility. The Alex Theatre feels cramped, and, although it recreates the original score, the music misses its chance to really fill out and air the piece's drama.
And this, I think, is the key issue. Director Andrew Pole struggles to anchor lines of dramatic tension through the narrative. There's no space. A subtle ill feeling, a foreboding, should run beneath the action, making the show's famed pathos utterly gut-wrenching. But it's just not there.
Alex Theatre, St Kilda, until 2 Aug
