Shoes Upon the Table

Have you ever seen a play or a movie or even a television episode that really affected you? You know, the kind that gives you chills when you watch and you feel like you're actually there with the characters. That's the kind of show Blood Brothers is. I've been sick and was not feeling like going out in the snow across campus to see a play, so I wasn't really looking forward to it. But from the very beginning I was totally engrossed by it.

SPOILER WARNING. Blood Brothers starts with a poor woman in London who gets married and keeps getting pregnant. After the seventh kid the husband leaves and the woman finds a job cleaning a rich woman's house. Then it turns out she's pregnant again. Bills are due and she will barely have enough to take care of the next kid. Then it turns out she's having twins. So she agrees to give one to the rich lady who can't have kids. After the boys are born the rich lady forbids her from telling the kids or for them to meet. The boys end up becoming friends when they are young and the rich lady freaks out and moves to the country. Later the poor woman gets into some money and moves to the country as well. The boys meet again years later and remain friends until they grow up. They grow apart after the poor boy gets his girlfriend pregnant and gets fired. Later, the poor boy thinks the rich boy is having an affair with his wife so he runs to go kill him. The mother tells them that they are twins and the poor boy, angry that he wasn't given to the rich family, shoots his twin. Then he gets shot by a police officer. The end.

The acting was amazing. The twins and the girlfriend did great playing the characters as kids all the way to adult. When the twins die at the end, pretty much the entire audience was in tears, including me. When the guns went off I jumped and might have screamed. Even after it was over, I still felt affected by the play. I don't know if was the acting or the writing, but it was definitely one of the best I've seen.