Stones In His Pockets (Reading)

Live Theatre is bringing Stones In His Pockets back to the Main Auditorium on Saturday 7 November, as a reading of Marie Jones' classic Irish tragi-comedy. It's a 30th anniversary marking, and the cast is made up of Live Theatre favourites, so it's a bit of a homecoming for the show as much as a celebration of its age.

If you haven't come across it, Stones In His Pockets is set in a small rural Irish town where a Hollywood epic is being filmed. The whole village has basically been put to work as extras, and at the centre of it all are Charlie Conlon and Jake Quinn. After a tragic incident involving a local teenager, the two of them take it upon themselves to give an account of what happened, and they do it by playing all the roles themselves. It's a two-hander that plays with the limits of comedy and theatricality, and it lets the romanticised notions of Irishness rub up against a harsher reality. It's a play that's toured the world, and this reading brings it back to the stage in a stripped-back way.

The reading is part of Live Theatre's new season, which runs from May 2026 to May 2027 and pulls together world premieres, festivals and readings. It's one of the more familiar names on the bill, so it's a good place to dip back into if you've seen it before or to catch it for the first time if you've only ever heard the name.

It's on Saturday 7 November at 7:30pm in the Main Auditorium, and tickets are £17.