“Stones In His Pockets”

Posted by Gail M. Burns - September 2011

This little two-man comedy has been around for about fifteen years now, and productions have proliferated on the periphery of this region, but this production at The Theater Barn was my first chance to see it. I knew that it was set in Ireland and that it was one of those two-guys-play-all the-parts deals, which made me think I was going to see a kind of Tuna Go Bragh. But I was delighted with the cast and director that the Barn announced, and went off with high hopes of a fun-filled evening.

I walked out of the theatre so deeply impressed with what I had seen – with Marie Jones magical script, with Phil Rice’s meticulous direction, and with Trey Compton and Matthew Daly’s artistry – that I was genuinely astonished. This is no little comedy. This is a profoundly affecting little play about human dignity and frailty and the psychology of place – how where we come from and where we make our home affect who we are.

The premise is simple – two Irishmen, one a local and one an “outsider” – are working as extras in a cheesy Hollywood flick called The Quiet Valley, one of many that are shot on the lush Irish countryside every year. This is the only work they can get as both farming and manufacturing have died out and neither are well educated or highly skilled. They are left playing caricatures of themselves on their home soil for forty quid a day. How each copes with that depressing irony forms the core of the story.

But under Rice’s direction, Daly and Compton play each of the fifteen characters to his or her fullest. The over-wrought production assistant and his assistant, the elderly American director, the beautiful starlet who CANNOT do an Irish accent to save her life, the village codger whose claim to fame is that he is one of the last living extras from The Quiet Man, a drug-addled teenager desperate to get on the film to earn money for a fix, the parish priest, childhood friends, etc. are each brought to life in a fine detail achieved through brilliantly placed broad strokes.

In other words, this is really good theatre. There is virtually no set and very minimal costume pieces – mostly hats and caps – are used to distinguish the characters. That and acting. Compton and Daly have been favorites of mine for years. It is wonderful fun to watch them morph in the twinkling of an eye from one role to the next. They literally look like different people. Daly is more adept at that trick than Compton (who is no slouch, I might add!), and his shift into the role of Clem, the film director, is particularly noteworthy. I swear he put on an entirely different face with that cowboy hat.

But as I said, this is not Irish Tuna. There is a real play in there, and it is actually rather a sad one. A death occurs, and much of the second act focuses on the struggle between the extras and the film crew to get the time off to attend the funeral. From that tragedy springs hope, as Jake and Charlie are jolted into considering where their lives are going and how they can take them down a more positive road.

Cows also figure prominently in the story, although neither Daly nor Compton get to play one.

Astonishingly, I am NOT going to complain about the accents. While both actors’ Irish brogues wobbled a bit, they were changing roles and accents so fast that they didn’t get a chance to lapse. Maintaining a consistent accent for a sustained period is most actors’ downfall, and that is not what is called for here. It will take your ears a couple of minutes to adjust to Jake and Charlie’s brogues, so don’t panic, just watch and listen and it’ll come easy to ya.

Abe Phelps’ set, Allen Phelps’ lighting design, and Alyssa Couturier’s costumes are all minimalist marvels. They each do their job beautifully in their small, unobtrusive way.

I have spent a lot of time in the past two weeks thinking about the concept of “place” because I have been helping the people who were flooded out of a very specific neighborhood in my community. Some of them want to go back. Some of them never want to see the place again. Many are displaced physically and emotionally. All are homeless. And they are finding a strong bond in their common experience.

A sense of place is just about all that Charlie and Jake have to cling to, and the drama in this piece comes from the tension between those who see the place as theirs by birthright and those who see it as theirs because they’ve paid for it.

I cannot recommend this one highly enough. “Stones in His Pockets” is just a wonderful evening of theatre that will literally make you laugh and make you cry and make you think. Where do you call home? Are you a local or an outsider? How does where you come from, where you’ve been, and where you are now effect where you’re going? I think the first place you should be going is to The Theater Barn.

Stones in His Pockets runs weekends through September 25 at The Theater Barn, 654 Route 20, New Lebanon, NY. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. The show runs two hours with one intermission, and is suitable for ages 10 and up (there are a few fecks and shites in there.) Tickets are $24 for the evening performances and $22 for the Sunday matinee. For information and reservations call (518) 794-8989.

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