Stones In His Pockets (Reading)

Stones In His Pockets comes to Live Theatre on Thursday 12 November. It's a tragicomedy by Marie Jones, first performed in Dublin back in 1996, and this production marks the play's 30th anniversary.

The story kicks off when a Hollywood film company descends on a small Irish town and hires many of the star-struck locals as extras. From there, it follows what happens when the town gets swept up in the glamour and the chaos of a big-budget movie landing on their doorstep. It's a play that balances the funny and the sad, and it's been around long enough to travel far beyond its Dublin start: it went to the Edinburgh Fringe, then to London's West End and Broadway, picking up two Olivier awards in the city, one for best new comedy, and it's been performed all over the world since. This staging is the 30th anniversary run.

Live Theatre is a new writing theatre with an international reputation for producing new plays and nurturing creative talent, and The Guardian has described it as 'one of the most fertile crucibles of new writing'. That's the kind of place that takes a piece like this — which started as a new play in Dublin and worked its way up through the Fringe and the West End — and gives it a proper home. It's a venue that lives for new writing, so it's a fitting spot for a play that's spent three decades finding its audience.

So, if you're in the mood for a bit of Irish comedy with a bit of heart to it, you'll find Stones In His Pockets at Live Theatre on Thursday 12 November.