1. In today’s lesson, you will:
Learning Objectives
In today’s lesson, you will:
consider the importance of the songs to our understanding of the play.

2. What do the songs add to our understanding of the play?
The songs in Blood Brothers are used for many different purposes.
They create mood and atmosphere.
They allow the audience to be introduced to characters and their backgrounds.
They allow time for the audience to reflect on the happenings of the play and think about the relevance of the action to themselves. Brechtian theatre
The songs emphasise and draw attention to specific actions and themes.
The tone of the songs also illustrates the difference between youth and experience that is explored within the play.

3. A Little About Brecht: Brechtian Theatre / Epic Theatre
German poet, playwright, and theatrical reformer, one of the most prominent figures in the 20th-century theatre. In his works, Brecht was concerned with encouraging audiences to think rather than becoming too involved in the story and to identify with the characters. Brecht developed a form of drama called epic theatre in which ideas or didactic (instruct or teach) lessons are important.
M.Rathor. Chapel en le Frith High

4. M.Rathor. Chapel en le Frith High
Brecht’s theatre:
Brecht wanted the answer to Lenin’s question ‘Wie und was soll man lernen?’ ('How and what should we learn?').
He created an influential theory of theatre named the epic theatre.
The audience was discouraged from becoming emotionally involved with the characters through various techniques.
The productions aimed to make audience members look at themselves (provoke rational self-reflection) and the world around them so that they could make a decision about what they had seen and the production would raise awareness of the issues that it covered (and a critical view of the actions on the stage).
If the audience was satisfied with the ending and had been involved, Brecht believed that they would not question what they had seen on stage. A happy ending left the audience unthinking.
Instead, he wanted his audiences to use this critical perspective to identify social ills at work in the world and be moved to go forth from the theatre and effect change.
M.Rathor. Chapel en le Frith High

5. His Alienation Technique, “Verfremdungs-effekt”
The use of anti-illusive techniques to remind the spectators that they are in a theatre watching an enactment of reality instead of reality itself.
FEATURES IN BLOOD BROTHERS
Intentionally interrupting the action at key junctures with songs in order to drive home an important point or message;
The use of a narrator was designed to stop the audience from becoming involved in the action.
M.Rathor. Chapel en le Frith High

6. Listen to the songs
As you listen to them, consider the purpose for which they are used.
What effect does the song create?
We’ll make notes as we go along.
Marilyn Monroe
The Devil’s Got Your Number
Easy Terms
Marilyn Monroe Part 2
Tell Me It’s Not True

7. What do the songs add to our understanding of the play?
How would you structure a response to this question?
Introduction – introduce reasons
Paragraph 1 – character information
Paragraph 2 – manipulates audience feelings – allows them to empathise with characters and their situations.
Paragraph 3 – creation of mood and atmosphere
Paragraph 4 – audience reflection –
Conclusion