Season Selects: Stones in His Pockets

We know - you have to wait a while to see this one. Tickets are selling quickly, though, so make sure to get yours soon, and learn more about this bittersweet comedy by Marie Jones, and directed by Tim Ocel below. 

Stones in His Pockets

By Marie Jones

Directed by Tim Ocel

Fast Facts

Playing: Touchstone Theatre | October 27 - November 20
Featuring: Nate Burger & Marcus Truschinski playing 15 characters.
Genre: Contemporary Comedy / Contemporary Drama
Go If You Liked: A Phoenix Too Frequent (2021), This Wonderful Life (Virtual - 2020), Heroes (2012)
Last at APT: First Time!

About the Play

This one strikes a chord equidistant between heartstring and funny bone. Rural Ireland gets a shot of Hollywood glam, and a village is sent spinning. They’re a charming lot, these townsfolk – funny and f lawed and brimming with hope. Not for nothing, all 15 characters are played by two brilliant actors who know how to find the humanity in each and every one. And within that extraordinary feat is a charming parable about how our pursuit of the latest shiny object can wall us off from the people we care about, and how a tragedy can help us rediscover life. About just who we can be when we let ourselves dream, whether we’re principal or bit player. A sweet, post-summer nightcap.

In 1952, John Ford shot the film The Quiet Man in rural Ireland – specifically in county Mayoand county Galway. The popular genre-bending romance/comedy/drama featuring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara was a huge success, with a storyline loosely based on The Taming of the Shrew.

To be clear, APT is not producing The Quiet Man. But the film looms large in the fall-season play, Marie Jones' Stones in His Pockets, which won the Olivier Award for best new comedy in 2001, joining the ranks of favorites like Educating Rita, Noises Off and ‘Art’. In the play, which takes place about 50 years after The Quiet Man was shot, this particular part of Ireland still strongly identifies with the production, and the impact the film had on the local economy, and on the townsfolk who were cast as extras. And with a new Hollywood film coming to shoot, the locals want their share of the limelight once again. This thoughtful and funny two-hander primarily explores the lives two men – Jake Quinn and Charlie Conlin – trying to make sense of their lives and their futures. There are 13 characters besides Jake and Charlie, including a wide variety of colorful locals, actors and crew. And they’re all played by two actors - Nate Burger and Marcus Truschinski - a feat Nate recent described as one of his favorite things.

Artistic Director Brenda DeVita says:

Stones in His Pockets is another play that we’ve been waiting to produce since 2020. Hindsight also being 20/20 (sorry, sorry!), this truly feels like the right year for it. Right now it’s early May. The first day of rehearsal, actually. And that makes us all feel so hopeful. Here we are, coming together with friends and colleagues and talented artists and artisans. And there’s this whole, beautiful season ahead of us; one that we’re hoping is going to feel more like a full and glorious APT summer season. And at the same time, so many things in the world feel dark and off kilter. So the general feeling is tragi-comic. We’ve all been working on our ability to laugh in the face of tragedy. And that’s what the characters in this play are doing. No mistake – they are hilarious and charming to a person. But many of them working with some life challenges, and working through an unexpected tragedy. And learning to live with that, and with themselves, while looking for their places in the world. And the only way to deliver that kind of nuanced character is with a brilliant actor as a conduit. And we have two of them – Nate Burger and Marcus Truschinski – who will find the heart and the humanity in all of these characters. It’s a beautiful, funny, bittersweet story. And it just feels like the perfect cap to this season.