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Preview by Paul Nelson
LADEN
down with awards, Stones in His Pockets, still running at the Duke
of York's Theatre, is also on tour and that tour has settled on the Wimbledon
Theatre stage for this week.
For the theatregoer the story will be familiar. A Hollywood film company descends
on a sleepy Irish country village to film (as in the true-life case of The
Quiet Man) and the out of work locals are recruited as extras. £40
a day is gold dust and in the crush for jobs are two men, Charlie Conlon and
Jake Finn.
Jake has just returned from America where he has found the streets are not
paved with gold, nor was he wanted as an actor, which had been his dream.
Charlie, from Northern Ireland, still reeling from his shop going bust and
his girl friend having dumped him, is on a tour of the country when he sees
the sign 'extras wanted'. His shop was a video hire place and he feels he
has seen enough movies to be able to write one himself, all he needs is a
professional ear and his script will be the next blockbuster movie.
This highly amusing play tracks these two, Jake being toyed with by the star
of the film, Caroline Giovanni, Charlie having his continuing problems with
the hard stuff, and they end up somewhat disillusioned but with the optimism
they can write about their experiences on the film set and make it with a
script. There is a slight and tiresome sideline to this plot, Jake's drug
addict cousin commits suicide because he can't get a job as an extra and he
is upstaged by Jake with Caroline in a bar.
The play has many funny moments, loads of funny lines, and here is the humdinger,
the two actors play everybody else, a total of some 15 roles.
Darting in and out of the various characters, the two men, Malcolm Adams and
Hugh Lee, give dazzling exhibitions of versatility and the evening should
have been one to crow about.
Wimbledon Theatre is a large house. It is not as big as the Coliseum or Drury
Lane admittedly, but neither is it a barn. Both actors were difficult to hear.
I cottoned on to about fifty per cent of the play but my companion, and here
I really felt annoyed, looking forward to seeing her first play in the theatre,
could only catch about twenty per cent of the dialogue. It is the first time
that I have wished for the one thing I deplore, amplification. Modern actors
these days must learn the technique of their job which is not necessarily
in a film or TV studio - it could be in the open air for God's sake. It matters
little being brilliant if you are inaudible.
The two of us left more in sorrow than in anger, the evening spoilt and my
companion's once in a lifetime experience in tatters.
Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones, Directed by Ian McElhinney, Designed
by Jack Kirwan, Lighting by James C McFetridge. WITH: Malcolm Adams and Hugh
Lee. Presented by Paul Elliott, Adam Kenwright and Pat Moylan at Wimbledon
Theatre, The Broadway, Wimbledon, London SW19. Tickets 020 8540 0362.
NB. The production is now touring.
RELATED LINKS: Click here
for The Wimbledon Theatre website...
