REVIEW - Stones In His Pockets is highly recommended - comic genius!

On Wednesday, we were invited to The Octagon in Bolton to see Stones In His Pockets. Read what our reviewer, Julie Wilson had to say about this wonderful production...

Stones In His Pockets is set in the ‘fifty shades of green’ rural town of Kerry, Ireland. A Hollywood film crew has chosen this town to film ‘The Quiet Valley’, a film of love and dispossession. The play centres around two extras, Charlie and Jake and the film crew who do whatever they can to get the job done. It is a story of hopes and dreams and the excitement of earning 100 euros a day as an extra.

It is a tragic comedy with extreme belly laughs until a local, ‘Sean’ is rejected by the glamorous film star Caroline Giovannia. This rejection cements Sean’s perception that there will be no escape from his bleak life in Kerry, and he tragically fills his pockets with stones before walking into a river.

The plays brilliance and authenticity are all down to two actors Gerard McCabe (Charlie) and Shaun Blaney (Jake) under the beautiful direction of Matthew McElhinney, the play writer, Marie Jones’ son. Teamed with the costume designer Gregor Donnelly’s clever use of a change of hats, reversal of a jacket or a trouser pull up, the extremely talented McCabe and Blaney provide seamless transitions between 15 distinctly different characters with ease. I was particularly impressed with one scene where Blaney was required to transition between three characters at an incredibly fast pace, something he did effortlessly, further illustrating the talent on stage.

McCabe’s pouting seductive Giovanni brought such laughs and delight to the audience, as did Blaney’s Mickey a bandy-legged old man with a cleverly placed necktie as a walking stick. But one of my personal favourites was Aisling you could definitely tell this character was drawn from experience, and every repeated line by the character, such as ‘Mark it’ was always delivered with a slightly different inflection or mannerism, keeping the audience interested.

The performance is energetic with perfect comic timing and great characterisations. Caroline’s seduction of Jake in her Winnebago is perfectly timed, the two characters digging turfs whilst watching the film stars arrive on horseback made not only the audience belly-laugh but had the two actors in stitches trying to contain themselves. Not to forget the brilliantly timed and energetic Irish jig bringing us the feeling of ‘real’ Irish culture which had the audience toe tapping and clapping in time.

The incredibly simple stage set, and stark orange lighting aligned perfectly with the portrayal of rural Ireland, and also with the characters themselves; somewhat stuck in a ‘simple’ life whilst yearning for Hollywood stardom.

Alex Tabrizi’s perfectly timed video projections allowed the audience to imagine rural Ireland whilst also providing an inner insight into the character’s own imaginations, particularly when they are drafting their own production of ‘Stones In His Pockets’.

The speed of the play and the actors themselves made for a comic delight, uplifting and fun a reminder to us to keep working on our own hopes and dreams.

An absolute triumph where two actors have comic brilliance and such fantastic rapport.

Highly recommended for an entertaining and enjoyable evening at the theatre. One not to be missed! A comic genius!

WE SCORE STONES IN HIS POCKETS...

Stones In His Pockets is on at the Octagon, Bolton until Sat 2nd November 2024.



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