Self-described 'tragicomedy' Stones in His Pockets at Cirencester's Barn Theatre certainly delivered on both aspects.

The Barn Theatre is just a 20-minute drive from Swindon and is frequently putting on small-scale high-value, high-budget theatrical productions of fun and exciting things like Stones in His Pockets. 

A play acted by just two people - Shaun Blaney and Gerard McCabe - who play two Irish extras who find themselves on the set of a big Hollywood movie being filmed in a rural Irish community in backwater Kerry, as well as the whole film crew around them. 

This set-up, which involves very subtle and incredibly fast-paced costume alterations to signify character changes works perfectly because of the commitment and skill of the actors who brilliantly shift from the two Irish extras named Charlie and Jake, who are down on their luck and a loss with what to do with their lives, to the director of the film,  the beautiful female lead, or an ageing colleague. 

The set, which utilised projection to create spaces and show parts of the film that is 'being filmed', is mainly static, with props such as clothes rails full of outfits helping to create the impression of crowds. The opening which sees the setting move from rolling hills full of cows to a film set is really well done. 

This in itself provides a lot of comedic moments, including an incredibly fun scene where around seven to eight different characters are having a big argument, and the two have to transition between them all in the blink of an eye. 

The laughter comes so thick and fast that it is easy to forget that big ideas and big themes are being looked at here, the parasitic nature of Hollywood using poor working-class communities, drug use, the strength and drawbacks of hopes and dreams, men's mental health and suicide. 

The play certainly acts as a lament to a lost Ireland known for its 'Fifty Shades of Green' but less so for its many small communities full of hard-working people in need of a break, but no sooner had that message been driven home, the performance's parting moment squeezed in one last and completely unexpected laugh with a number of surprising and hilarious on-screen cameos. 

One character says "People don't go to the movies to get depressed, that's what the theatre is for," but that couldn't be further from the truth with Stones in His Pockets, which proves The Barn Theatre is for putting on superb productions of brilliant shows that we otherwise would never get to see in a local setting.