Stones in His Pockets & A Night in November: Two Plays

by Marie Jones

Two plays by award-winning playwright Marie Jones: the smash hit Stones in His Pockets, which ran for four years in London's West End; and an earlier monologue, A Night in November, exploring the subjects of football and sectarianism, set during the 1994 World Cup.

A two-man show about the filming of a Hollywood epic in rural Ireland, Stones in His Pockets features a pair of film extras, Charlie and Jake, who tell the story by taking on all the roles themselves.

A Night In November follows Kenneth McCallister, family man and Ulsterman, on the fateful night in November in Belfast when the Republic of Ireland qualifies against Northern Ireland for the World Cup, and Kenneth finds himself watching the sectarian hatred of the crowd rather than the football.

'a delightful piece... often richly funny' Telegraph on Stones in His Pockets

'an unalloyed source of joy, laughter, tears and delight... Marie Jones's script digs deep and dark while giving us two hours of serious pleasure' Daily Mail on Stones In His Pockets

'Jones builds an astonishingly complete, acute, funny and humane picture - a complete theatrical tour de force - hilarious, loveable and at times even breathtaking' Scotsman on Stones in His Pockets

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, Fiction, Ireland, Irish Literature

125 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Behnam Rezaeian Moghadam · Rating 3 out of 5]

پاره سنگ در جیب‌هایش، نمایشنامه‌ی بسیار خلاقانه و خوبی‌ست. نمایشی با حدود پانزده شخصیت که قرار است همگی توسط دو بازیگر اجرا شوند. داستان در جایی دورافتاده در ایرلند می‌گذرد. جایی که یک گروه فیلم‌برداری از هالیوود آمده‌اند برای استفاده از نماهای طبیعی ایرلند. در این نمایش نقش اصلی، سیاهی‌لشکرهای محلی فیلم هستند که داستانشان، قصه‌ی ستاره‌ها را تحت تاثیر قرار می‌دهد.
برای من که اجرای بسیار خوب این نمایشنامه را به کارگردانی و بازی پارسا پیروزفر دیده بودم، خواندن کتاب حس بسیار خوبی داشت.

[Ali Mousavi · Rating 4 out of 5]

کی حاضره قبول کنه که هیچ گهی نیست؟

خیلی عالی بود. فیلم تئاترش رو با اجرای رضا بهبودی و پارسا پیروزفر دوباره دیدم و حسابی لذت بردم.

[Alborz Taheri · Rating 2 out of 5]

کارولین : من اصلا نمی دونم داری از چی حرف می زنی .
جیک : البته که نمی دونین ، شما می آین این جا استفاده تونو از ما می کنین ، استفاده تونو از این جا می کنین ، اصلا هم فکر نمی کنین پشتِ سرتون چی به جا می ذارین .
شاید بتوان گفت این دیالوگ اصلی ترین انتقادِ مری جونز ایرلندی تبار در این نمایشنامه است . انتقاد به هالیوودی هایی که آمده اند در ایرلند فیلم بسازند . مری جونزی که دغدغه اصالت رو می توان در همین کمدیِ تلخ و انتقادیش دید .
نمایشنامه بدی نبود اما بیشتر دوست دارم نمایشش را ببینم ، این که دو بازیگر تمام نقش ها را بازی می کنند و میزانسن نمایش هم ( با اینکه نمایش در چندین جای مختلفِ مثلِ صحنه فیلم برداری ، کلیسا و ... می گذرد ) میزانسن بسیار ساده ایی است ، می تونه نمایشِ جذابی رو از کار در بیاره .

[Jenny Gladheim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lurer på hvordan denne hadde vært i en norsk setting, hvordan skulle man arbeidet for å gjøre den til den, hvem skulle vært irene? Det var mye fyll, noe av dialogen føltes litt vel lange og jeg skjønte poenget, men likevel var den ikke det fordi når jeg kom til slutten trengte du alle de rare scenene. Hvordan er det visuelt og, iscenesettelse, det er jo så mye bare (kirkescene) og ingen kontekst til hva som skal med? mange tanker, vil se det på scene ikke bare lese, føler dette manuset virkelig viser hvorfor drama er for scene og ikke bare til å leses (HINT HINT NORSK UNDERVSING PÅ VGS)

[Kowsar Bagheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

دیدن اجرای خوب پارسا پیروزفر و رضا بهبودی از این نمایش‌نامه باعث شد ترغیب بشم و بخونمش و شاید ریتی هم الآن دادم تا حدی متأثر از دیدن اجراش هم باشه. البته اون اجرا بر اساس ترجمه‌ی پیروزفر از این نمایش‌نامه‌ی مری جونز بود. و ترجمه‌ی احیاء و پیروزفر یه‌سری تفاوت‌های ریزی با هم دارن. در مجموع فرم و محتوای این نمایشنامه برای من جالب بود و به‌نظرم ارزش خوندن رو داشت. درباره‌ی یه گروه سینمایی هالیوودیه که به ایرلند اومدن تا فیلمی بسازن و از مردم بومی و کشاورز اون‌جا به‌عنوان سیاهی‌لشکر استفاده می‌کنن. در نهایت این برخوردها از فرهنگ‌ها و طبقه‌های متفاوت و حتی متضادْ مسائلی رو ایجاد می‌کنه.

[Duncan Maccoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

By coincidence I was studying a 12 week module at the UK's Open University entitled A176 Start Writing Plays and this was one of the set books when the play came to our local theatre. The actors were Martin Jenkins and Christopher Patrick Nolan. The play is so funny and the actors portrayed all of their characters brilliantly. If only my play for A176 had been as good.

If you can imagine it, my favourite part is when one character is talking to another and then turns around and seemlessly starts talking to a third character. All this with two actors, take a bow gents.

[Mozhdeh Ariannezhad · Rating 4 out of 5]

روان و ساده و زیبا، و البته فراموش‌نشدنی. اگر تئاترش را دیده باشید خواندن نمایش‌نامه صحنه‌هایش را پیش چشم‌تان می‌آورد، اگر هم ندیده باشید دلتان می‌خواهد آن را ببینید.
این نمایش‌نامه با نام «سنگ‌ها در جیب‌هایش» و با بازی پارسا پیروزفر و رضا بهبودی، شهریور تا آبان ۱۳۹۲ روی صحنه بود:
http://www.tiwall.com/theater/stones/

[Ellesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

... I adore everything about this play. My favorite play ever.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

My older teen, who read and performed this with a summer program, said that it used cuss words and talked a lot about sex. Yeah, probably, but the conversations about sex were guys wishing they had sex, not actually doing it and not describing it. Probably not something we would have chosen for the performance.

But my teen did enjoy trying to learn the Irish accent for the performance, and performing so many of the characters.

There were some mildly funny jokes.

My teen also felt that the main characters were hypocritical, actors using someone in a romantic relationship just to learn their French accent, and then condemning Caroline for using one of them to learn their Irish accent. My teen didn't feel like it was fair to make Caroline the antagonist, but, oddly enough, I don't think Caroline ever realized that she was an antagonist.

I felt like the main characters did develop and recognize some of the detrimental aspects to show business in regards to character, but my teen felt that they never applied that to themselves, and that they never realized how awful they'd been treating the girl with the French accent. Probably not. I didn't really see them thinking that deeply, either.

I felt like Sean's suicide made them more aware of the negative effects of the industry, and certainly those were there, but they seemed almost too desperate to pin the blame on someone, and instead of understanding the effects of the industry as a whole, they blamed the people who were mere cogs in the wheel of this particular movie. Yes, they all took some of the blame, little pieces of it, but I don't think they deserved the lion's share of it. Yes, certainly, Caroline should've been kinder to Sean, but women shouldn't really have to put up with men's pickup lines and strategies, either, if they don't want to.

I know this was supposed to be a tragicomedy, but to me, it was more of a tragedy. I did like the ending and what Jake and Charles did, in regards to Sean's suicide.

[Martin Denton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stones in His Pockets, in addition to being a potential tour de force for two versatile actors, is also a fine, fine play. It's a portrait of two men, Charlie and Jake, who are down but emphatically not out, together finding comradeship and self-respect and hope, even as the collective weight of life in their depressed Irish town and the huge stifling apparatus of the Hollywood film-making machine conspire to strip them of their pride and dignity. Playwright Marie Jones has fashioned here a very funny satire of contemporary celebrity culture that also finds time to skewer movie industry stereotypes with panache and gusto; yet also ponders, with authentic profundity, the societal monoliths that produce that culture and those stereotypes. Stones in His Pockets is about the ways that life's nobodies like Charlie and Jake are connected, irrevocably and palpably, with the so-called somebodies. The play's concept is that Jake and Charlie, two Irish blokes working as extras on a big-budget movie., also portray all of the hungry Irish locals and the overfed film-making foreigners.

This is a very funny play. It's comprised of vignettes from several days of shooting crowd scenes and the like, with the several "filmed sequences" all hilarious set pieces. The "book" scenes, in which we eavesdrop on Jake's bizarre mini-affair with movie star Caroline Giovanni, are beautifully crafted as well.

[Luke Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't wait to be in my school's production of this next semester! An excellent satirization of the ignorant ugliness of Hollywood, a gleeful romp into the frenzy of a movie set, and a heartfelt examination of the effects of that on a local Irish community, Stones in His Pockets is a fun two-hander that serves as a wonderful challenge and a big delight.

[Theodore · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s hard to read and fully understand without seeing the actors switching the roles in real time, which I presume is where a lot of the comedy comes from. But the play has a fantastically written ending.

[Keaton]

read A Night in November 12/11/19

[Bia · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Charlie, you and me are fucked, we have nothing, and we are going nowhere, but for the first time in my life I feel I can do something...'

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't have to get meta at the end there but 2 guys playing loads of characters. Man I would love to see how they pull this off. Could get real boring real quick though.

[Pat Breunig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would love to see the play. I couldn’t get tickets to it so I read the book. I think the comedy would come out in the play. Not so much in the book.

[Mohammad Mirzaali · Rating 2 out of 5]

یه کمدی تلخ و انتقادی. گفت‌وگوها بیش‌تر بین دو نفر روستائی‌یه که دارن تو یه فیلم هالیوودی به عنوان سیاهی‌لشکر بازی می‌کنن، فیلمی که داره تو یه روستای ایرلندی فیلم‌برداری می‌شه. نوع رفتار عوامل فیلم و مردم روستا و تعارض‌آی هنجاری‌شون، زمینه‌ی نقد جدّی حل‌شدگی تو «فرهنگ بزرگ» -به نمایندگیِ هالیوود- می‌شه که تلخیِ نمایش هم از همین‌جا شکل می‌گیره

[Letitia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really wonderful piece. I was disappointed at the lack of director's notes in the production I saw. I think the typical American audience will not have enough understanding of the undertones of Irish culture to empathize with the characters presented.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

wonderfully funny. a great character piece.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

saw this production in london. Reading the script because
it is my favorite script: no set, two performers playing all the roles.
Funny and I was a total sucker for the crying at the end.

[Sergio · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal play. Very Irish. Think Fever Pitch (Colin Firth, not Jimmy Fallon), but quality art.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the allusions to THE QUIET MAN :)

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good story, but to me, the end was a little abrupt. Knowing that only two actors play all the characters, makes the read even more fun.

[Bryant Powell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't get into this play as much as I would have liked to until the end, but that's probably because I made the mistake of reading it instead of seeing it.

[Molly Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would love to see this play staged. I loved the "meta" aspect of the film and the exchange between film and Irish culture being exported.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny and surprisingly moving but the genius is in the format.