A What's Good to Do Review
On Friday evening we we were invited to the press night of Stones In His Pockets at The Dukes, Lancaster. Here is our review of the evening.
The Dukes is a lovely theatre in Lancaster city centre and
we always enjoy visiting as all the staff are very friendly and we are always
sure of a warm welcome. It is easy to find, situated close to the centre of
Lancaster with plenty of parking nearby. The car park we used had an evening
rate of £1.40 and was very close to the
theatre with some on street parking nearby.
The play is performed in The Round theatre which is an
intimate performance area with seating around a central stage and works well
with the simple set.
Written 20 years ago by Marie Jones and directed by John
Terry, this is a joint production between the Dukes and Chipping Norton
Theatre. The production starts a two week run in Lancaster followed by a
national tour, visiting Chipping Norton at the beginning of April and 30 more
locations finishing in Ramsden on the 28th May.
Set in County Kerry, the story follows two locals, Charlie
(played by Conan Sweeny) and Jake (Charlie De Bromhead), as they work as extras
during the filming of a Hollywood movie set in their village. The story
explores how the feelings of the locals, who are all playing extras in the
film, change from the initial excitement about the Hollywood glitz to
resentment when it becomes clear that the visiting Americans care much more
about finishing the film on time than the feelings of the locals, who want to
pay their respects after a local lad commits suicide.
With 15 characters, including the glamorous American female
lead Caroline Giovanni who takes a shine to Jake, the play asks a lot of the
two actors; they switch almost instantly from one role to another and at whilst
at first this was a little confusing, we soon caught up and managed to keep
track of the story. Using slight changes in body language and different voices
rather than costume changes to reflect these changes in character works very
well but it must have been difficult to remember which voice was for each role!
The play, despite featuring the suicide of a local lad, is
very definitely a comedy with the two actors working very well together and
making the most of the comic dialogue.
Making use of a very simple set and with virtually no props
the actors use mime convincingly to illustrate the story, whether that is
drinking in the local pub or genuflecting in church. Excellent sound design
also helped set the scene with background noises reflecting the different
locations.
We really enjoyed the play and would recommend that you
visit it in one of the many locations on the tour.