In the play, all the characters are played by one of the two styles. The Hollywood characters have used Brecht as a way of acting while the local characters have used Stanislavski’s method.
The first impression the audience has is the set which is very simple but effective. There is a blue sky with clouds on a backdrop which is brightly lit, suggesting it is a bright sunny day. The backdrop is also bordered to make it look like a film reel. A row of shoes can be seen and as the audience begin to realise what the play is about, I think the shoes symbolise the ‘extras’ in the film. They are extra low paid actors for crowd scenes in the movie. There are also costume boxes on the stage which implies it is a movie set. These boxes are used continuously throughout the play, improvising all sorts of props such as a bar, a desk, a bed and even to create different room settings. The theatre is built as a Proscenium Arch. They built it in this style as it would make the audience more distant from the actual play.
The characters are immediately likeable lads, who are just getting to know each other. Much mime is used to indicate what is going on and it is left to the audience’s imagination to visualise the different ideas. The set establishes the place, props and characters. Body language establishes the different characters that the two actors are going to take on board. The gestures suggest an action of giving and receiving things such as drinks and other everyday objects.
When we have just started learning about Charlie and Jake and their happy-go-lucky characters, suddenly one changes his body language and the voice changes to that of a seventy year old. Mickey. This is very effective as the actor becomes bent and the voice deepens to that of an old man. The facial expressions are very important in that most of the humour expressed comes through the body language and facial expressions. This encourages, the audience to look forward to meeting other characters in the play wondering whether they will be able to keep changing voices and gestures.
There tends to be a movement, a jump or a turn when the characters change. The most effective ones are when they become women. The voice changes are very believable, adopting a Hollywood, sexy slow American accent for Caroline, who constantly slinks across the stage, wiggling herself. The other is Aisling who constantly shakes her hair and tucks it behind her ears. Both actors have observed stereotypical female traits which are exaggerated of course, but that adds to the humour.
Music was also an important factor as it added to the humour. For example when Jake and Charlie have to watch Caroline riding her horse, the music in the background, sounds just like a horse galloping. Music can help the audience understand what is going on in many ways. It can set the mood of a scene or it could even show
Other interesting characters portrayed are Sean, the disillusioned youth who seems destined to failure. The actor’s body language and voice change again, this time with help from a jacket which he has got from the box and the cheap white trainers. From this we can imply that he is trying to be stylish but does not have enough money to do so. We realise that he is a young by his voice and what he says. We understand that he is on drugs and that he is angry that he is turned down as an extra. The technique of flashback helps the audience to understand Sean better, when they go back in time to school days. Another character emerges as brother Gerrard, the lighting changes to that of a darkened space with a shadow of a church window. Sean is seen as a young boy reading his essay on cows. We learn that all his hopes were to raise cows on his father’s farm. This makes the audience think about the serious undertones of the play and the truth behind all the glamour of movies. Sean and many others like him are out of work and have no prospects due to the fact that farming no longer exists on such a large scale. Inevitably, his depression and reliance on drugs, leads him to suicide. The audience recognise the significance of ‘Stones in his Pocket’ when we learn how he dies.
This is Sean’s escape from the real world. In fact, the characters are all trying to escape something. Most of them have their dreams. Charlie and Jake want to become famous; one wants to become famous, the other a playwright. In the play Jake and Charlie normally stood together in the centre. This indicated that they were the main characters and everything revolved around them. To back this judgement the lighting was also mainly intended towards the centre. Even Caroline feels she is not happy with her work. She wants to have the perfect Irish accent for her role and this is why she uses Jake. There is satire in this scene when Jake actually explains to her that in a real situation, the character she is playing ‘one of the landed gentry’, an upper class Lady, would not have a broad Irish accent. She ignores this remark completely. The ‘extras’ mean nothing to her or to any of the others in the movie business. Ironically they are treated in a similar way to how the peasants are treated in the movie. Humour is created many times in the attitude Aisling and Simon have towards the extras, treating them as though they are dumb. The audience emphasise with Charlie and Jake when Aisling commands them to follow her hand in a certain direction, pretending that it is the horse, on which the leading lady is riding.
They find it extremely amusing and difficulty in performing their task by bursting into laughter. Their laughter is soon brought to a halt when Fin tells them the news about Sean. In act two the flashback of Fin and Sean let the audience know how, as young boys, they dreamed of being movie stars or going to America. They think of their present situation which was generally taking over their father’s job. Sean innocently, believes that there will always be cows even though his father tells him that he should find something else to do. Hence, they are keen to follow the American Dream and be movie stars.
Ironically, this is how Charlie and Jake see themselves and even though they understand the reality of what can happen, they do not give up as they become more and more excited by their ideas on production of Charlie’s movie script. The audience see their new ideas ‘canvas productions’ and the reality of life being in film, such as Sean and the cows. However, Hollywood steps in, in the form of Clem, the director, who claims it is not commercial enough. In the play the extras do become stars in their own right. The audience see the characters as they really are, fun loving and bright, facing up to reality, and not pretending that life is easy.
