Juno and the Paycock

by Seán O'Casey
Gielgud Theatre, London

This is the second of Seán O'Casey's famous 'Dublin Trilogy' of plays (which also includes The Shadow of a Gunman and The Plough and the Stars), directed by The Old Vic Artistic Director Matthew Warchus. Juno and The Paycock is perhaps unique amongst the trio for blending elements of the comic and tragic in equal measure, so much so that its tone comes off as rather uneven even if its overall message about war and senseless strife remains just as bleak. 

Set in 1922 in the midst of the Irish Civil War, the action centres around the Boyle family living in a cramped Dublin tenement, richly conjured up in Rod Howell's detailed, expansive set. Patriarch Jack (Mark Rylance), the self-aggrandizing 'paycock' (peacock) of the title, is a former merchant seaman who spends his days languishing in a pub with his best friend Joxer Daly (Paul Hilton) and refusing to work due to mysterious pains in his legs. His adult daughter Mary (Aisling Kearns) is on strike from work while his troubled son Johnny (Eimhin Fitzgerald Doherty), who lost an arm in the Irish War of Independence, lives in fear of being discovered as an informant by the IRA. Holding the family together is mother Juno (J. Smith-Cameron), so nicknamed because all the climactic events in her life (birth, marriage, childbirth) happened to take place in the month of June. 

Juno and The Paycock opens almost like a farce and Warchus leans into the slapstick strongly with the titular couple bickering and trading barbs. Fans of Rylance who have enjoyed his masterful performances in Jerusalem and Wolf Hall will no doubt get their money's worth. The moment he appears, he truly commands the stage. His Jack has the air of a vaudeville comedian, tottering and tinkering around like a crazed child. There's an entire sequence involving sausages in a hot pan that feels like it could be a Chaplin routine. It's tremendously entertaining but also ends up drawing so much attention to his character that it rather dilutes the other themes: the poverty of tenement life, the scars of war and the fundamental inhumanity of man against man. 

Things end on a good note in the first act with the promise of an inheritance from a deceased relative and Jack promising to turn over a new leaf. However, just as quickly, they rapidly go south: the money is nowhere in sight despite Jack chalking up debt, Mary is left pregnant and abandoned by the man she was seeing and Johnny is abducted and shot to death by the IRA. The family splinters apart and Jack reverts to his old habits in a grim echo of the beginning.

Warchus extracts strong performances from his cast with memorable turns by Hilton as the cheeky, good-for-nothing Joxer and Anna Healy as boisterous neighbour Mrs Madigan. The true emotional anchor of the play however is Smith-Cameron's Juno, the steely, long-suffering wife who infuses a lifetime of regret and recrimination into a single look. Her bitter speech at the end as she finally decides to leave her husband is not easy to forget. 

A crucifix hangs ominously over the stage and more than once, characters lash out at how they are expected to hold their faith in the face of such misery and pain. The play sadly offers no answers but remains as powerful as ever in a world that remains fraught with uncertainty.

The Crystalwords score: 3/5