2.2.5
Overview: Mickey & Edward as Teenagers 3
Overview: The Wedding and Unemployment
Overview: The Wedding and Unemployment
Mickey and Linda are married. However, the celebrations are cut short as Mickey is made redundant.
The wedding
The wedding
- The scene quickly moves forward to Mickey and Linda’s wedding, but the celebrations are short-lived as the scene moves again to the factory where Mickey works.
Redundancy
Redundancy
- The managing director, who happens to be Edward’s father, Mr. Lyons, and his secretary, Miss Jones, are singing a song where the employees of the factory are made redundant.
- Mr. Lyons lists several reasons why his employees are being fired: “the shrinking pound, the global slump and the price of oil”.
- The wedding guests transform into a queue of unemployed people. The men in the unemployment queue make comments about Mickey’s demise, referring to him as “old before his time”.
Overview: The Christmas Holidays
Overview: The Christmas Holidays
Edward returns for the Christmas holidays. However, he cannot understand Mickey's situation. Edward confesses his feelings for Linda. Sammy persaudes Mickey to join him on a robbery.
Edward returns
Edward returns
- The next scene shows the Christmas holidays, and Edward is home from university.
- Edward is in a jovial mood and talks about all of the good times he has had at university and the “tremendous people” he has met, unaware of the struggles that Mickey and Linda have faced since he has been gone.
Edward doesn't understand Mickey's unemployment
Edward doesn't understand Mickey's unemployment
- Angered by Edward’s unintentional insensitivity, Mickey calls Edward a “dick head” and reveals that he is now unemployed and suffering from depression.
- Edward asks Mickey why he needs to worry about working when he can just claim unemployment money, prompting Mickey to say that Edward doesn’t “understand anythin’”.
Mickey gets angry
Mickey gets angry
- When Edward tries to offer Mickey money, Mickey tells him to “piss off”.
- Edward asks what happened to their blood brotherhood, and Mickey tells him that it was just “kids’ stuff” and that he has grown up now. He then aggressively forces Edward to leave.
Edward asks Linda why she didn't visit
Edward asks Linda why she didn't visit
- Edward and Mickey move to opposite sides of the stage, and Sammy approaches Mickey while Linda approaches Edward.
- On one side of the stage, Linda and Edward begin talking.
- Edward asks Linda why she hasn’t come to see him and Linda explains that she didn’t want to distract him from all of his new university friends and didn’t “like buttin’ in”, to which Edward protests that “it wouldn’t matter if I never saw those friends again, if I could be with you”.
The stage is split in two
The stage is split in two
- On the opposite side of the stage, Sammy is trying to convince Mickey to act as a lookout for a burglary.
- Sammy assures him that it will be non-violent and their guns are “just frighteners. Y’ don’ need to use them”.
- Back on the side of the stage with Edward and Linda, Edward reveals that he is in love with Linda: “I’ve always loved you, you must have known that.”
The stage is split in two continued...
The stage is split in two continued...
- Simultaneously, Mickey agrees to go along with Sammy’s burglary plan after a tempting offer of “fifty quid for an hour’s work.”
- On the other side of the stage again, Linda sympathetically explains to Edward that she has always loved him “in a way”, but that she is now married to Mickey and they are expecting their first child together.
Overview: The Robbery
Overview: The Robbery
Mickey and Sammy are arrested for the robbery.
New Years Eve
New Years Eve
- It is now New Years Eve, and Mickey tells Linda that he is going out, but when he comes back later they will go out dancing together.
- Linda is suspicious because Mickey won’t tell her where he is getting the money to go out with from, and she pleads with him not to go: “Mickey… Mickey… No!”
The robbery
The robbery
- The Narrator appears to remind the audience of the fact that the characters will have to pay the price for Mrs. Johnstone and Mrs. Lyons’ actions, and we then see Mickey keeping watch as Sammy is arguing with another man over a gun.
Sammy and Mickey are arrested
Sammy and Mickey are arrested
- An alarm can be heard and a shot is fired.
- Sammy tries to escape, but Mickey is unable to move, frozen with terror.
- The Narrator reminds the audience of the children’s games the characters used to play with toy guns.
- Next, we see Sammy hiding a gun under the floorboards.
- Linda arrives and holds Mickey before two policemen arrive and take away the brothers.
Micky in jail
Micky in jail
- Mickey is put into jail, and Mrs. Johnstone sings a song about how the story continues.
- It seems that Mickey is sentenced to seven years in jail, and becomes deeply depressed, requiring prescribed medication.
- She compares the demise of Mickey’s mental health to that of Marilyn Monroe: “he treats his ills with daily pills, just like Marilyn Monroe."
Linda visiting Mickey
Linda visiting Mickey
- Next, Linda is visiting Mickey in prison and it is close to the time that he will be released.
- She begs him to stop taking the antidepressant medication, telling him “they’re just junk”, but Mickey says that he simply cannot live without them.
1Context & Author
2Plot
2.1Act One
2.1.1Overview: Introduction to Mrs Johnstone & Lyons
2.1.2Analysis: Introduction to Mrs. Johnston and Lyons
2.1.3Overview: The Birth of Mickey & Edward
2.1.4Analysis: The Birth of Mickey & Edward
2.1.5Overview: Mickey Playing at Home
2.1.6Overview: Mickey & Edward as Seven-year-olds
2.1.7Analysis: Mickey & Edward as Seven-year-olds
2.1.8Overview: Mickey & Edward as Seven-year-olds 2
2.1.9Analysis: Mickey & Edward as Seven-year-olds 2
2.1.10End of Topic Test - Act One
2.1.11End of Topic Test - Act One 2
2.2Act Two
2.2.1Overview: Mickey & Edward as Teenagers
2.2.2Analysis: Mickey & Edward as Teenagers
2.2.3Overview: Mickey & Edward as Teenagers 2
2.2.4Analysis: Mickey & Edward as Teenagers 2
2.2.5Overview: Mickey & Edward as Teenagers 3
2.2.6Analysis: Mickey & Edward as Teenagers 3
2.2.7Overview: Mickey & Edward as Adults
2.2.8Analysis: Mickey & Edward as Adults
2.2.9End of Topic Test - Act Two
2.2.10End of Topic Test - Act Two 2
3Characters
3.3Linda
3.4Mrs Johnstone
3.6Mr Lyons
3.7Sammy
3.8The Narrator
3.10End of Topic Sessions
4Themes
4.1Parents & Children
4.2Growing Up
4.3Friendship & Brotherhood
4.4Fate & Superstition
4.5Nature vs. Nurture
5Literary Techniques
5.1Structure
5.2Tragedy
5.3Dramatic Irony
5.4Imagery
5.5Character & Voice
5.6Music & Lyrics
Jump to other topics
1Context & Author
2Plot
2.1Act One
2.1.1Overview: Introduction to Mrs Johnstone & Lyons
2.1.2Analysis: Introduction to Mrs. Johnston and Lyons
2.1.3Overview: The Birth of Mickey & Edward
2.1.4Analysis: The Birth of Mickey & Edward
2.1.5Overview: Mickey Playing at Home
2.1.6Overview: Mickey & Edward as Seven-year-olds
2.1.7Analysis: Mickey & Edward as Seven-year-olds
2.1.8Overview: Mickey & Edward as Seven-year-olds 2
2.1.9Analysis: Mickey & Edward as Seven-year-olds 2
2.1.10End of Topic Test - Act One
2.1.11End of Topic Test - Act One 2
2.2Act Two
2.2.1Overview: Mickey & Edward as Teenagers
2.2.2Analysis: Mickey & Edward as Teenagers
2.2.3Overview: Mickey & Edward as Teenagers 2
2.2.4Analysis: Mickey & Edward as Teenagers 2
2.2.5Overview: Mickey & Edward as Teenagers 3
2.2.6Analysis: Mickey & Edward as Teenagers 3
2.2.7Overview: Mickey & Edward as Adults
2.2.8Analysis: Mickey & Edward as Adults
2.2.9End of Topic Test - Act Two
2.2.10End of Topic Test - Act Two 2
3Characters
3.3Linda
3.4Mrs Johnstone
3.6Mr Lyons
3.7Sammy
3.8The Narrator
3.10End of Topic Sessions
4Themes
4.1Parents & Children
4.2Growing Up
4.3Friendship & Brotherhood
4.4Fate & Superstition
4.5Nature vs. Nurture
5Literary Techniques
5.1Structure
5.2Tragedy
5.3Dramatic Irony
5.4Imagery
5.5Character & Voice
5.6Music & Lyrics
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