The City Theatre’s all-time favourite Stones in Your Pocket will be performed for the 700th time

Helsinki City Theatre’s super-popular Stones in Your Pocket will be performed for the 700th time on Wednesday 15 November at Studio Pasila. The performance, which has gathered full audiences for more than 15 years, has broken Finnish records both in terms of performances and as the longest-running full-length play in the repertoire, and there is no end in sight to its popularity.

Stones in the Pocket, starring Martti Suosalo and Mika Nuojua, had its Finnish premiere on 24 October 2002 at Studio Pasila. The performance, written by Irish Marie Jones and directed by Pentti Kotkaniemi, has attracted more than 233,000 viewers.

“The success of the play is, of course, a self-esteem-boosting, dreamily encouraging experience, but in the end, it is a play that is performed and with which we tour Finland, child among children. You can’t bang braces under this pretext, but it’s a good acting exercise, and it seems to work for the audience as well. The best and most rewarding thing about this is the audience, the audience’s reactions and the reciprocity, they get and we get,” Martti Suosalo sums up.

“Oh, and although it is of course great that theatre history is made with this performance, in a way you don’t think of it that way. We always make one performance at a time, and for that audience,” Mika Nuojua continues.

The play is about the filming of a film made in rural Ireland, with the help of locals Charlie Conlon (Suosalo) and Jake Quinn (Nuojua). The duo switches from one role to another on the fly, acting not only the main characters but also all the other fifteen or so roles in the play, regardless of age or gender.

The performance, beloved by the audience, has visited numerous theatres in Finland over the years. There have been a total of 145 guest performances, and a total of 17 have been agreed for spring 2018. For Studio Pasila’s Stones in Your Pocket performances, there are still tickets for the performances in March and May.

Stones in the pocket Helsinki City Theatre’s studio in Pasila (Ratamestarinkatu 5)
Tickets 19,50 € – 39 € (incl. pm)