"Another message pushed the previous one upwards on the screen, and a 20-year-old terror slid up through the soles of my feet: He's found out..."
Guilt. Delusion. A splintering present. A murky future.
THE STONES
Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, 8-29 August, 2022
Written and directed by Kit Brookman
Performed by Luke Mullins
Lighting design by Ben Jacobs
Composition and sound design by Jethro Woodward
★★★★
"A masterclass in slowly ratcheting up tension with little more than dry ice, an understated soundtrack and tremendously lyrical writing... a satisfying, dark mystery, regularly undercut with black humour, that's sure to haunt you for days."
the story
After breaking up with his boyfriend, a chance connection with an old school friend leads Nick to take a job as the private tutor to two young children in an old house in Sussex. The family seems perfect, the job too good to be true. But then the stones begin to arrive.
As it becomes clear that his new job is not everything it seems, Nick's hold on reality becomes increasingly tenuous. And all the while, a catastrophe that threatens him and the children in his care slides unobtrusively into view...
The Stones is a darkly comic gothic mystery; a radically distilled piece of writing performed with scalpel-like precision.
reviews
★★★★★
"Mullins is riveting... a truly intelligent piece of literature... transcends the boundaries of its limitations."
- Heather Jeffrey, London Pub Theatres Magazine
★★★★
"... unnerving in its quiet power... The Stones is a slow-burn show, but one that quickly captures your attention, then mercilessly plays with it... an intelligent, decidedly creepy response to our current precarious times."
- David Kettle, The Arts Desk
★★★★
"Shades of Robert Aickman, Shirley Jackson and Henry James' The Turn of the Screw... Consummate storytelling in both the writing and the rendering."
- Jonathan Kemp, Queerguru
In 1900, three lighthouse keepers vanished without explanation from an island in the outer Hebrides. The last entry in the lighthouse journal read: ‘Storm ended, sea calm. God is over all.'
the team
writer / director - Kit Brookman
performer - Luke Mullins
rehearsal diary
Find out from writer / director Kit Brookman what's been going on behind the scenes in the making of THE STONES.
play text
We will be selling copies of THE STONES on the door during our season at The Edinburgh Fringe, and also online over at our publication The Signal House Edition.
Sign up to our mailing list for a chance to win a copy of the play (drawn at the end of August 2022)
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