Stones in His Pockets – Tower Theatre, London

Writer: Marie Jones

Director: Colette Dockery

Marie Jones’s 1996 play Stones in His Pockets was, at the time, a cultural phenomenon. Her two-person play was a hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with transfers to the West End and Broadway swiftly following.

Those fringe origins were always notable throughout, with no need for a physical set and minimal props. Instead, the whole production relies on the ability of just two actors to portray multiple roles. Thus, Stone in His Pockets is also ideal for smaller venues to stage.

The Tower Theatre revival casts Hugh O’Shea and Kevin Furness as Jake and Charlie, two residents of a small Irish town in County Kerry upon which has descended a Hollywood film production. Along with many other townsfolk, they have been recruited as extras, and find themselves pushed from pillar to post in rustic garb to help tell a story set in the romanticised version of Ireland that exists only in movies.

Jones has great fun capitalising on the differences between the opulence at the top of the movie-making ladder and the lives of the extras – who, on this multimillion-dollar production, are on a measly day rate and have to concoct wild excuses just to cadge an extra dessert from the catering van. Part of the fun is also seeing the two actors quickly switch between roles, often mid-scene, with little more than a flat cap as a physical indicator of which character they are currently playing.

O’Shea shines here, with sharp delineations between his protagonist Jake, pensioner Mickey, assistant director Aisling and others. Each character has distinct vocal and physical characteristics that make it clear which role he currently inhabits, even though his portrayal of a woman is unsubtly close to caricature.

Beside him, Furness stands out less as Charlie, the director Clem, leading lady Carolina Giovanni and others. There’s not quite the same level of distinctiveness between several of the roles he plays, which robs some of Jones’s satire of the movie industry of its bite.

Indeed, the whole piece seems to pull its punches when it comes to the harder edges that made the original comedy production so effective. The play’s title comes from the stones one character, Sean, puts in his pockets as he walks out to sea to ensure he commits suicide by drowning. That’s an event which not only drives the divisions between the film company and the local residents, with the need to complete the film on time and on budget competing with the extras’ need to attend the funeral and wake, but should also cause us to look at the relationship the film crew, the townsfolk, and us as an audience, had to a character.

But while the events and reflections precipitated by the death play out as Jones has written, there’s something not quite present in the emotional heft the play demands. Furness comes closest with Charlie’s speech about how he, a relative newcomer to the town, had previous experiences that took him close to the line that Sean has crossed.

Elsewhere, we never really get the sense of loss that Sean’s death needs in order to give Stones in His Pockets the range of which it’s capable. Without that, the play is an entertaining little comedy that has fun satirical moments but never quite lands the big punches.

Continues until 9 December 2023