From the word go, I was interested in the premise: a story about a Hollywood film crew, making a movie set in Ireland, which focused on the locals who played the extras, involving a wide cast of characters (fifteen, I believe was the number, I wasn't exactly keeping count), all of which played by two actors (in other words, a two-hander). Immediately I was drawn in: multiroling, plays within plays, it sounded exactly what I was looking for, and I gladly was not disappointed.
The moment I saw the set, I was intrigued: a backdrop of clouds, a trunk and a box, and a long line of shoes which, I guessed from what I had heard, represented the many different characters shown. Those who know me know that I have a general dislike of too much set or copious props, so this was a step in the right direction for me. Then the lights dimmed, a short, Hollywood-style ad reel started, and I prepared myself.
The two actors switched seamlessly from character to character, although it must be said that it was difficult to keep up with them at the beginning, but as the play progressed, characters were easily recognisable through voice, accent, pose, etc. and these characters were portrayed so excellently, I almost forgot, several times, that there were only ever two actors on stage throughout. From the straight characters of Jake and Charlie, to the comedic female roles of Aisling and Caroline Giovanni, I was delighted every time I saw each character. In fact, the female roles were done perfectly: comically exaggerated, but still believable as real women, as opposed to men pretending to be women: Gary Trainor's Caroline was fabulously sexy (not to mention, her 'Irish' accent was priceless), and Patrick Kelliher's Aisling was flamboyant and hilariously ditsy. Plus, every time the extremely American Simon said 'wankerrr', I cracked up.
The acting was excellent: accents never faltered, even when switching from Irish to American to a different kind of Irish in a matter of seconds, and the different postures of each character captured them excellently. Not only that, but the comedy in the show was hilarious: my personal favourite being the scene in which the locals must perform the turf digging scene, and react to the two actors' entrances, followed by Jake trying (and failing) to contain his laughter, which was almost immediately disrupted by sudden tragic news, turning the scene on its head and turning hysterical laughter amongst the audience, to a collective desire to cry, and act one ended.
Some of the people who watched the performance with me said that they didn't enjoy the second act as much as the first, but I loved them both in equal measure: the actors maintained the energy, while flipping between dark and sombre to comical again, without it feeling strange or at all forced.
Unfortunately, I find it easer to talk about the bad points of something (which may be why my previous review was so long), but luckily there is not much to talk about on that front. All I can think of that I didn't like was that at times the intonation seemed odd, but that may just be because I'm not used to hearing Irish people speak; after all, I live in the South of England, where we all speak in monotone anyway.
Overall, it was a play that I would definitely recommend to anyone, and would even consider seeing again in the future, if it comes up. Even if the idea of two actors handling such a large cast sounds mad to you, you should still watch 'Stones In His Pockets' to see how it can be done. In fact, if you think it seems daft, you should definitely watch it. This is the kind of theatre that I can use as an example when arguing that it can be so much better than cinema these days (which is actually ironic, considering the role of cinema in the play).
Thank you, Kelliher and Trainor, I will now, as you said, feck off.
