Ottawa Sun, November 26, 2005
Missed it by that much
By: Denis Armstrong
Nine times out of 10, playing a nationality in theatre, particularly a comedy, usually boils down to the dreaded but ubiquitous stereotype.
Feel free to fill in your own caricature here, including our most popular -- the deferential Canadian, the swaggering American, the constipated Brit, the list goes on. Ugh! It's particularly grating when it's your own culture.
So, it's not surprising then, being of Irish descent, the ethnic stereotype I find the most irritating is that of the giddy, sentimental drunk. Lord, he might as well have green skin.
So I held my breath, prepared for the worst at the opening of the Great Canadian Theatre Company's latest theatrical offering, Stones In His Pockets, the black comedy about two Irish country bumpkins -- Charlie Conlon (Pierre Brault) and Jake Quinn (Jonathan Goad) -- who land roles as extras when a big Hollywood movie crew comes to their village.
Suddenly these unemployed schemers are making money and hanging out with movie stars. But when the novelty wears thin, their despair is amplified. Charlie, the one still foolish enough to have big dreams, hopes to sell a movie script he wrote while working in a video rental shop.
Wiser and sadder.
Meanwhile, Jake, who tried to make it as an actor in New York but returned broken, is all the wiser and sadder for it. If this isn't enough, when a friend commits suicide during the shoot, it's time for the boys to quit dreaming and take their dignity back.
It sounds like a downer but Stones in His Pockets is anything but. Jones' script is both savage and hilarious. And written for only two actors, it takes huge talent to pull it off.
Which this GCTC production has. But there's still something missing. Leisurely Irish pacing. Viewing this production felt like watching the horse races.
That's partly director Dennis Fitzgerald's fault, and partly Jones', who has the pair covering so many British, American and Irish characters, (I lost count after a dozen), it's hard not to fixate on the performances. Slow the pace down a tad, give the scene room to breathe, and you've got a winner.
Granted, that's easier said than done. The cast is so talented, their performances so quick and imaginative, it's hard not to fixate on them. Brault, who's renowned for morphing instantly into many ethnic characters in Blood On The Moon and Portrait of an Unidentified Man, and Stratford veteran Goad deliver dazzling performances. In fact, I found Goad more convincing than Brault and if you've ever seen Brault perform, you know that that's no small feat.
And while the opening credits are splendidly theatrical, the bare-bones setting might have used a prop or two to mark the flurry of scenes. If this sounds like so much nitpicking, it's only because this GCTC production just needs a little fine-tuning to be very, very good. And not just because it avoided stereotypes.
Stones In His Pockets plays at GCTC until Dec. 11.