Stones in His Pockets at Salisbury Playhouse - Review

Photo by Alex Tabrizi

 PRESS TICKETS

Wiltshire Creative's 2024 Autumn Season is well and truly underway and this week we headed down to Salisbury Playhouse to see Stones in His Pockets. Presented by Wiltshire Creative, Barn Theatre Cirencester, and Octagon Theatre Bolton, this production is running in Salisbury until Saturday 19th October. 

Stones in His Pockets is a tragicomedy. It's got dark themes intertwined with hilarious jokes. This production could be one of the funniest I've seen to date, which says a lot considering the play includes themes such as suicide. 

The play, originally written by Marie Jones, is directed by her son Matthew McElhinney. A new Hollywood film is being shot in a rural Irish village and local people feature in the production as extras. This play follows two of these extras in particular, Charlie and Jake, who are played by Gerard McCabe and Shaun Blaney respectively. 

McCabe and Blaney are the only actors in the entire production, so also play the roles of the other 10+ characters that make an appearance throughout the 2+ hour production. Switching between characters almost instantly and with minimal props or costume changes, we were SO impressed. It takes a little bit of time to remember who is who and which costume tweak is who, but once you know, it's easy to follow. 

I'd highly recommend going to see Stones in His Pockets at Salisbury Playhouse this October, it's brilliant!