Stones In His Pockets, Program Notes

“An unalloyed source of joy, laughter, tears and delight…”
—The Daily Mail

In 2001 a little play that began life in a series of small theatres in Belfast, Northern Ireland—one early audience was comprised of exactly 5 members--won London’s Olivier Award for Best Comedy.  West End success brought a transfer to New York where Stones in His Pockets garnered Tony nominations for the cast and director. Playwright Marie Jones’ play, set on a bare stage, with unknown actors, became a Broadway hit competing successfully with the likes of The Producers. And what wee tale had Ms. Jones asked her cast of two to bring to life? The descent upon a tiny rural Irish village, of a massive Hollywood production company intent on filming a lavish historical epic. Two actors? To bring to life the crew, cast and the hundreds of locals who take jobs as extras? Micro theatre takes on macro movies and the observation is dead on. Marie Jones is an actress as well as a prolific writer.  She appeared as Daniel Day Lewis’ mother Sarah Conlon in “In the Name of the Father” and knows her way around a movie set.  Her husband Ian McElhinney, the director of Stones, had similar experiences playing roles in Michael Collins and other films. The result of their collaboration is a nimble examination of the exploitative and collusive relationship between Hollywood and rural Ireland.  The blarney-infused romance The Quiet Valley,  being filmed in the play,bears some resemblance to Far and Away, the 1992 film that starred Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, and was beset by troubles on location on the Dingle peninsula.  But Jones insists she had no single movie or star in mind, but simply what happens "when the wagons roll in, with all the glitz and glamour, and two cultures that are poles apart coexist for six weeks." To the rural Irish, the arrival of Hollywood represents several weeks' work and decent money. But it also provides a bittersweet acceleration of local dreamers’ hopes and aspirations, and the pain of not having them realized, even when they dangle right before the eyes, waiting behind a trailer door, or sitting on catering table like a forbidden slice of lemon meringue pie.

“Fascinating, moving and hilarious!” --London Independent