Above is the title as it must appear on your essay. Follow this guide sheet to help structure your essay. Remember that you are writing a review of the performance you have seen, not the work done in lessons. Answer the question below throughout your essay.
How effectively did the production (actors, director and set/costume/lighting designers) explore the differences in socio-economic status in Liverpool in the 1960’s?
Introduction
Say what the play was called, the date of the performance and the theatre. Give a brief outline of the plot. Refer to the main themes of the play.
In the narrator’s opening passage, he invites the audience to make a judgement about Mrs Johnstone and the decision she made to give away one of her twins. What or whom do you think is responsible for the death of Mickey and Eddie? Develop this argument and consider what the playwright’s message might be.
The play is the story of twins who are separated at birth. One grows up in a middle class household and the other in a working class household. The play examines the issue of social class in Britain through the different ways in which they grow up. The central theme of the play is socio-economic status.
Structure
Explain the structure of the play and the conventions used to tell the story. Refer to flashback, narration, and dramatic irony. How did you respond to the play opening with the death scene? What effect did this have on your viewing of the play? (Consider empathy, curiosity, emotional involvement, fate, etc) There were many tense moments during the play, were there any times you felt distanced from what was happening on stage? How was this created?
The play opened on the death scene of the two brothers. The rest of the production was a flashback, as if the narrator was telling the story.
“So did y’ hear the story of the Johnstone twins?
An’ did y’ never hear of the mother, so cruel,
There’s a stone in place of her heart?
…Then bring her on and come judge for yourselves
How she came to play this part”
Characters
Select one or two characters from the play and discuss the actors’ portrayals in detail. For example, discuss what skills were applied to create a convincing 7, 14 and 21 year olds. Give specific examples of costume, hair and makeup, gesture, movement, vocal techniques, facial expressions, etc. Compare the ‘nearly eight’ monologue to the depressed adult. Did you
