This preview article originally appeared in The Star & Wave newspaper on Wednesday, September 11, 2024.
When Hollywood Meets Ireland at Cape May Stage
By Lynn Martenstein
When a Hollywood movie is shot in a small town in rural Ireland, where the cows outnumber the locals, it upends many of the latter’s lives. It even disses the cows.
“The cows aren’t Irish enough,” complains the movie director.
“Stones in His Pockets,” now at Cape May Stage, is a fast, funny, and poignant play that explores roads not taken and embraces second chances.
Written by Irish playwright Marie Jones, the show won an Olivier Award, the British equivalent of a Tony, for Best New Comedy in 2001. Jones, a former actress who was often in movies shot in Ireland, drew on those experiences when she wrote the script for this play.
The result was a comedy tucked around a tragedy that ultimately has a happy ending. The play is about “haves” and “have-nots,” with the writer clearly rooting for the underdogs.
The story follows two down-on-their-luck Irishmen, Charlie Conlon, played by Jeremy Konopka, and Jake Quinn, played by Colby Howell. Both are cast as extras in a big-name, big-budget American movie, set in the Irish countryside, where many of their neighbors eke out a modest living by minding cows and working the land.
Konopka and Howell are outstanding as the play’s two leads. Between them, they also play 13 supporting roles so one or both are always onstage. It’s a dizzying pace they artfully execute by switching accents, changing their body language and accessorizing with subtle wardrobe changes such as donning a cap, adding a headband or putting on glasses. In one scene, Konopka actually plays two people having a conversation, simply by changing places with the imaginary person next to him.
One standout secondary character is Konopka’s American movie star who hopes to pick up a real Irish accent from Howell’s Jake by “going ethnic” with him back at her hotel. Another is Howell, who as her speech coach, John, leads her through a riotous set of voice exercises.
“You can’t be too exact,” he instructs her. “You won’t get away with it in Hollywood.”
“Though County Kerry, Ireland, where the play is set, is not Cape May, we can laugh at ourselves since we experienced an example of life imitating art last spring when our community had a film produced in our own little town,” said Roy Steinberg, Cape May Stage’s producing artistic director.
By design, the set for this play is light on props. Klieg lights hang from the ceiling, suggestive of a movie set. A few benches and chairs are the only furniture onstage, and a row of shoes line the front of the stage, implying, perhaps, how limited our perspective is of walking in someone else’s shoes and finding common ground.
Cape May Stage’s production of “Stones in His Pockets” runs September 11 through October 20 with shows Wednesday through Saturday at 7 p.m., and Sunday at 3 pm. For ticket information, visit capemaystage.org or call the box office at (609) 770-8311.