Dennis Herdman and James Nickerson
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Stones at Theatre By The Lake, 27 March

Marie Jones’s award winning Stones in his Pockets opens at the Theatre by the Lake in Keswick on Saturday 27 March. 

The cast consists of just two actors who between them play 15 characters in a show that follows what happens when Hollywood descends on County Kerry to make an ‘Oirish’ blockbuster. Dennis Herdman and James Nickerson, familiar faces at Theatre by the Lake, have taken on the challenge.

“Usually if you are playing more than one character in a play - and it’s rarely more than two - you have periods where you go off stage and change into a different costume,’’ said Nickerson. “The audience has time to forget about you as one character before you come back on as someone else. But in Stones we are not allowed to leave the stage or have any major costume changes.”

Herdman says he is exhilarated by the task of having to work out how to make each character as distinct as possible. “Part of what drives me on is the idea that those people watching wouldn’t do what we are doing and are impressed just by the fact that we have attempted it. One of the main things is to give yourself over to the pleasure of it and to do it with élan and joy. That helps you carry it through.”

Stones In His Pockets is at the Theatre by the Lake  from Saturday 27th March  (preview Friday 26 March) and runs until Saturday 17 April.

- by Glenn Meads

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