Russell creates a ‘character’ of the narrator, who acts a little like the Greek ‘Chorus’ from ancient tragedy whose role is to explain some of the key action on stage. The narrator also involves the audience by asking them directly to judge what they see. He helps to make sure that the audience stay a little ‘detached’ from the events of the play. He also helps them remember that this is a ‘story’.
He reveals that the brothers die at the very start of the play and from then on constantly reminds the audience of the twins’ fate. He presents the themes of fate, destiny and superstition throughout the play, but at the end he asks the audience to consider if it was social forces rather than ‘fate’ that caused the tragedy.
The narrator fills that gap in Blood Brothers. He is a commentator and also a conscience, e.g. When the Narrator sings ‘Shoes upon the table’. This is directed at Mrs J and emphasises that the secret cannot be kept forever. He shows Mrs Johnstone’s feelings of disgust: ‘You’re always gonna know what was done. Even when you shut your eyes you still see you sold a son’. As well as her superstition (‘salt’s been spilled’) the song draws upon Mrs Johnstone’s religious beliefs that she has committed a sin (‘the devil’s got your number’). Throughout the play the narrator is stepping in scenes to either explain to the audience what is happening or simply saying what is going through the character’s head, mainly Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons. The narrator links to superstition because he is always singing or saying something about superstition to Mrs Johnstone at first, from when we know that she’s superstitious. Also, we learn that Mrs Lyons becomes superstitious later on because the narrator starts to sing the lines ‘the devils got your number’ to her, as he does with Mrs Johnstone. The first incidence of superstition comes at the beginning after the opening song as this is when the audience finds out that Mrs Johnstone is superstitious and that…