Poignant twin tale Blood Brothers never misses a beat

Twins separated at birth – who meet years later – have inspired some fascinating stories.

Building on this fact, the theme of Abbey Musical Theatre’s latest production, Blood Brothers, the show’s programme contains lots of twinny factoids to read before the house lights go down.

Did you know that more than 22 percent of twins are left-handed?

Moving on, Blood Brothers isn’t the kind of cheery musical that you skip out of with a light-hearted tune on your lips. But it’s a powerful, poignant story that stays with you and keeps you thinking for long afterwards.

Set in a grimy English industrial town, it’s the story of cleaning lady Mrs Johnstone (Val Andrew), a faded beauty whose husband has left her with seven children, and twins on the way.

She has too many children to feed; her employer Mrs Lyons (Joanne Sale) has none.

So a fateful deal is struck; Mrs Lyons is given one of the twin babies, Eddie (Tyrell Beck), to raise as her own. The women promise each other the boys will never meet.

But, accidentally, they do, and become best friends and sworn “blood brothers”. Following different trajectories from childhood to adulthood, Mickey (Michael Doody) is disadvantaged in every way except for his loving mother; Eddie has everything money can buy.

The first act sets the scene for their early lives; the second gradually plunges the story into heart-wrenching tragedy.

Against an inventive set, director Barry Jones’ musical direction, the live music of the production’s band and the performances themselves lift and inspire the stage action.

Val Andrew is a warmly personable Mrs Johnstone, with Lottie Perry (Linda) a sweetly appealing girlfriend; Joanne Sale, Andrews’ foil as the slowly down-spiralling Mrs Lyons; and Jacob McDonald as bad-boy Sammy.

The interplay between Mickey and Eddie is often delightful – although Mickey’s jitteriness could be taken down just a notch.

As the narrator, Samuel Gordon is on stage almost all the time, a sinister, vocally strong presence.

All in all, this production and its personnel never miss a beat, in all senses of the word.

(Tina White)