Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones


My reaction to reading and seeing this play.


I read Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones again today. I saw this play in New York at the John Golden Theatre a couple of years ago, in the production directed by Ian McElhinney and performed by Sean Campion and Conleth Hill. I was impressed by the performances when I saw it - Campion and Hill play many characters, usually in split second changes that are very funny to watch.
After reading it, though, I think that the play is better written than I had originally thought - it was easy to think that the performances were superior to the material because the production emphasized the actors by having only two actors play the roles - but it does not have to be that way.
The play is about about an American film company coming to a poor Irish town in county Kerry. Half the town is enlisted as extras, including the main characters, Jake and Charley. Jake lives with his mother, and does not really know what he wants to do, but is interested in the film industry. Charley has failed as a businessman, and pretends confidence but does not really believe he can succeed. In the first Act, there are many funny moments - the movie star picks Jake out to help with her accent, but is not really interested in knowing that her character would not speak that way (her dialect coach tells her not to worry - "the Irish are only 2% of the market." The Americans come in like natural aristocrats, with no real care about how the town is being corrupted and disrupted.
In Act II it turns dark. Sean, a young man rejected by the filmmakers as an extra drowns himself. His first attempt fails so he comes back and puts stones in his pockets to make sure.
The extras want to go to the funeral, but the Americans don't let them, and make an insincere show of their concern. When Charley shows the director his script, he shows he has no interest in telling stories with truth, he just wants commercial product. Charley and Jake end up deciding to write a script telling the story of Sean.
What I like about it is that it tells a story analogous to Ireland's - the English ran the country but did not know the people or culture. It also implies that art triumphs - the Americans have all the money, power and clout, but they use it to make bad movies. The extras, with no money, power or clout, will write the script that tells truth.
The play is published by Applause Books , and is available at Amazon.

Posted: Tue - January 27, 2004 at 07:19 PM          

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