South African BLOOD BROTHERS Adaptation to Start Tour in Cape Town in September 2013

Willy Russell's acclaimed West End musical BLOOD BROTHERS will be produced by Pieter Toerien and Eric Abraham for Theatre on the Bay and the Fugard Theatre. It is set to open at the Theatre on the Bay in September 2013, before transferring to Montecasino Theatre in Johannesburg in November. The production will then return to Cape Town and play at the Fugard Theatre from early February 2014.

BLOOD BROTHERS tells the story of a Liverpool mother who agrees, due to financial desperation, to give away one of her twin boys at birth. The story has been adapted by David Kramer and will now be set in Cape Town and have a distinctly local flavour. BLOOD BROTHERS has enjoyed phenomenal success in London and other parts of the world. It opened at the Lyric Theatre in 1983 and played for an astounding 24 years on the West End. It has been produced and performed in many other parts of the world, but this is the first time that Willy Russell (SHIRLEY VALENTINE, EDUCATNIG RITA) has granted permission for his musical to be adapted.

"I was, understandably, delighted when I learned that producer Pieter Toerien wanted to present my musical BLOOD BROTHERS in South Africa. I was further delighted and excited when David Kramer got in touch to say that he strongly believed that for BLOOD BROTHERS to be seen to its greatest effect and with maximum impact in South Africa, the musical should be transposed to a South African setting and adapted accordingly," said Russell. "I could easily have insisted that the South African production should remain true to the original text and setting - with countless successful productions having been staged all over the world throughout the past 30 years, why should I now agree to relocating and re-voicing an established work. Well, I've always loved theatre when it is at its most specific. Yes, we could certainly present BLOOD BROTHERS in South Africa and present it as a drama set in Liverpool and it would, I'm sure, be perfectly understandable and possibly even appreciated by a South African audience. But wouldn't that same audience have a keener, sharper, more visceral experience, a closer human connection with my tale if itwas told more directly and through the language of their country, rather than through the mediating gauze of its Britishness?

My very first job in professional theatre was to take a play by Alan Plater, which was set in Hull and followed the fortunes of a fan of the local football team. My job was to re-locate the play and adapt the dialogue and songs to a Liverpool setting for production at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre. When I met David Kramer in London last year and he began to outline his ideas for re-locating BLOOD BROTHERS and setting the story in the coloured community of Cape Town, I realised that he was proposing the same thing that I'd been doing all those years ago. And I thought it was a wonderful idea. I was immediately alert to the parallels and the possibilities and couldn't wait to go to work with David to explore and realise these. I think perhaps David was expecting a little more resistance but right from the outset, I never doubted that this was anything but the right way of bringing BLOOD BROTHERS to South Africa. Without David Kramer I would never have done it - but with him, and with Pieter Toerien, I am delighted to do so."

Kramer who has also enjoyed much local and international success with his own musicals will direct this production.

"I first saw Blood Brothers in London in the 1980s and was impressed by the emotional impact of this work. It struck me at the time that it was a story that would play very well if set in Cape Town. That idea has stayed with me all these years and I am thrilled that Willy Russell has allowed me to pursue this vision."

The production will open in September 2013 at Theatre on the Bay for a short season before transferring to Monte Casino in Johannesburg. BLOOD BROTHERS then transfers and opens at the Fugard Theatre in February 2014.

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