Labour of love as O’Casey classic gets a fresh outing

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

Audiences attending Juno and the Paycock at the city’s Town Hall Theatre next week can expect to be immersed in early 1920s Dublin from the minute they enter the venue. Sean O’Casey’s great play is so much a part of the Irish literary canon that we forget just how shocking it was when it premiered at the Abbey in 1924.

Set in a Dublin tenement, the tragi-comic drama follows the Boyle family, whose lives will never be the same again as a result of Ireland’s Civil War.

Andrew Flynn’s new production with Galway Community Theatre for the Town Hall Theatre aims to present Juno and the Paycock in a fresh light, giving modern audiences a notion of how people lived in this new Free State. And so, without giving too much away, Andrew advises us to expect the unexpected once we enter the foyer.

Of the play itself, the Juno of the title is Juno Boyle, who is married to Jack, nicknamed the Paycock. Jack’s main aim in life is to avoid work. A fantasist, who claims to have been a ship’s captain, he regales his companion including his longtime friend Joxer Daly with maritime tales, all fabricated.

Juno the breadwinner, has a a strong moral compass as she tries to keep her family together. However, her son, Johnny, who bears the scars of Ireland’s fight for freedom, betrays a Republican comrade while her daughter, Mary is a vain idealist and poor judge of men. Comedy abounds, but the scene is set for tragedy in this production which stars Ger Howard as Jack and Patricia Boyle as Juno.

Andrew Flynn previously directed Juno more than 10 years ago and he still has the set, which was designed by Owen MacCárthaigh.

“The cast isn’t being paid and I’m conscious of giving the group as professional a production as possible,” he explains as he’s joined on a break from rehearsal by Ger Howard, as well as by Gráinne White who plays Mary Boyle and Gerry Ferguson who has several minor roles.

Gráinne, a drama graduate from NUIG is a newcomer, while Ger and Gerry are seasoned members of Galway Community Theatre, which was set up in 2010 at the instigation of the late Mike Diskin, the then manager of the Town Hall Theatre.

Since then, it has presented a range of work, much of it in conjunction with Galway Youth Theatre, where Andrew is Artistic Director. These include Pat McCabe’s works Frank Pig, Shay Mouse and The Dead School, and David Greig’s Midsummer, all staged at Galway Arts Festivals through the years.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.