How is Mrs Johnstone presented in Blood Brothers?

How is Mrs Johnstone presented in Blood Brothers?

Mrs Johnstone is a warm and caring mother, despite the struggles she faces supporting her eight children alone. At the start of the play, she describes how difficult her life has been.

What is Johnstones name in Blood Brothers?

Barbara Dickson
Casts

What techniques are used in Blood Brothers?

Terms in this set (11)

• Dramatic Irony. When the audience knows more information than the character on the stage – this can make the audience feel more involved.
• Tableaux (Dumb Show)
• The juxtaposition of scenes.
• Songs.
• Omniscient audience.
• Monologue.
• Soliloquy.
• Brechtian (Distancing effect)

What staging is used in Blood Brothers?

Traverse stage. ( Blood Brothers could be performed on a Traverse Stage. One of the positive aspects of performing on a traverse stage is that the spaces on each end can be used for set design.

How is Mrs Johnstone presented as a strong female character?

‘Mrs Johnstone’ has a happy-go-lucky attitude and therefore follows her instincts and this is her best guide through life. Russell also portrays the character ‘Mrs Johnstone’ as a strong and generous woman. She knows what is right and wrong, however her circumstances make it hard for her to be a ‘good’ person.

What does Mrs Johnstone represent?

Mrs Johnstone has a very low social status. She is a working class, single mother with a large number of children which she struggles to control. As such she represents a social group that is often much maligned by society, the single parent, living on benefits with a large number of children.

Is Mrs Johnstone cruel?

Alternatively, in the opening of the play, the Narrator describes Mrs Johnstone as a “mother, so cruel, there’s a stone in place of her heart”. This refers to her decision to give one of her twins to Mrs Lyons. The Narrator is suggesting only a heartless mother could do such a terrible thing.

How does Russell create sympathy for Mrs Johnstone in the opening song?

Lyons reminds Mrs. Johnston with the terrible deed that she committed by strongly stating the fact that “you sold your baby” and labels the whole act as a “crime”. We, the audience sympathize with Mrs. Johnston because she has lost her job and is now unable to provide for her children.

What is the style and genre of Blood Brothers?

Blood Brothers was written to be performed as a piece of musical theatre. It is ultimately a tragic story but is interspersed with comedic elements, mainly focused around the childhood and teenage years of Mickey and Eddie.

What style of performance is Blood Brothers?

What is the structure of Blood Brothers?

The play is structured in two acts. The first act starts in the early 1960s, before the birth of the twins, Mickey and Edward, and moves on seven years to when the boys meet as children. The second act resumes when Mickey and Edward are in their teens, and tracks them through to adulthood.

How is Mrs Johnstone naive?

Mrs Johnstone is naïve in allowing Mrs Lyons to convince her to give up one of the twins. Her superstitions and lack of education enable her employer to take advantage of her. Mrs Johnstone’s poor judgement is also shown in her buying things from the catalogue that she cannot afford.

How is Mrs Johnstone admirable?

Her belief in superstition exposes her lack of education and her working class background. Despite the difficult life she has had, Mrs Johnstone is optimistic, hopeful and idealistic and always believes that something better is going to come along, no matter how unrealistic this belief might be.

How does Blood Brothers feature a cyclical structure?

‘Blood Brothers’ has a circular structure as the tragic outcome is given at the start and the play then tells how that outcome was reached.