Given Bolton’s current reputation as the North West’s film capital with crews arriving in town almost on a weekly basis, it’s more than appropriate that this revival of the award-winning comedy should end its current run at the Octagon. Gerard McCabe and Shaun Blaney as Clem and Aisling in Stones in his Pockets When a Hollywood blockbuster is filming in a small Irish village, we see the chaos unfolding through the eyes of two extras Charlie and Jake - Gerard McCabe and Shaun Blaney. The lot of an extra is, it would seem not a happy one.
To earn their 100 euros a day they are at the mercy of the various assistant directors and studio bods all under pressure a budgets are stretched and the weather disrupts shooting schedules. Charlie appears to be the eternal optimist. He’s written a script which he hopes will be his big break but he’s clearly hiding something.
Jake is more of a realist having returned from America after the promised land let him down. There is a short ‘settling in’ period as you get used to the Irish accents and the rapid character changes but you will soon be immersed in the world of Charlie and Jake. As well as the two main characters which at times have echoes of Laurel and Hardy about them; Gerard McCabe and Shaun Blaney also play 13 other characters ranging from Caroline Giovanni, the American star of the movie; assistant director Aisling (possibly the funniest of the lot) and veteran extra Mickey who proudly boasts he’s the oldest survivi.