Review: STONES IN HIS POCKETS Delights at McCarter Theatre

STONES IN HIS POCKETS, running at McCarter Theatre Center through February 11, has a cast of two. But Irish actors Garret Lombard and Aaron Monaghan portray dozens of characters in Marie Jones' hit play about villagers in County Kerry thrust into excitement and heartache when a Hollywood movie comes to town to film.

McCarter audiences may still be dizzy from Bedlam's production of HAMLET last season when another small cast portrayed dozens of characters on a minimalist set and acts of invention, or lack of, conveyed the story.

But STONES IN HIS POCKETS finds a more unified sense of purpose, perhaps because it was conceived to be performed by only two versatile actors, and director Lindsay Posner expertly walks the tightrope between pathos and comedy and economy in staging is never at the expense of emotional pay off.

The voice that lingers, at least the one I contemplated long after the play was over, was the one never seen. Playwright Marie Jones has much to say about her country's portrayal by Hollywood, its dreamers and its drunks, and, as the title suggests, the despondency of losing a sense of place and purpose in one's homeland.

Lombard and Monahan deftly convey the multitude of characters and yearnings standing among the cows and the deep green countryside. With a running time of about an hour and a half, it's a testament to the play and this production that so much can be said with so little.

Creative Team: Tony Award-winning set designer Beowulf Boritt (McCarter's
Murder on the Orient Express) returns with a triple threat: set, costumes, and projection designs. Boritt is joined by lighting designer Japhy Weideman (Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway) and sound designer/composer Lindsay Jones (A Time to Kill on Broadway.)

Ticket Information and Performance Schedule
Stones in His Pockets runs January 12 - February 11 in the Berlind Theatre. Single tickets range from $25 - $97.50 and are on sale now online at https://www.mccarter.org/, by phone at (609) 258-2787, or in person at the McCarter Theatre Center Ticket Office, located at 91 University Place in Princeton.

Photo Credit: T. Charles Erikson

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