Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones premiered in Belfast in 1996, had a successful West End run, and won a slew of awards. Audiences of Neptune Theatre’s production of the Irish hit may be baffled by its previous success. What has potential to be a playful and biting satire about Hollywood culture encroaching with a rural Irish community, ends up as nothing more than a gaggle of insipid stereotypes. The story centres on a small town in County Kerry taken over by a Hollywood film crew and the two bumbling extras who are caught in its midst. The second act takes a more serious turn, attempting to portray some very real consequences of American cultural imperialism, but the payoff is not earned in the hands of Dayna Tekatch, whose direction lacks the subtlety required to move deeper than mere physical comedy shticks. Christian Murray and Rhys Bevan-John demonstrate their comedic skills as they play some dozen or more characters, but their talents are wasted in this lacklustre production of a mediocre script.
Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones Directed by Dayna Tekatch Starring Christian Murray & Rhys Bevan-John Neptune Theatre, Fountain Hall, 1593 Argyle Street To November 6. $33-$65
This article appears in Nov 3-9, 2016.