In 2010, the Abbey-production of The Plough and the Stars, directed by Wayne Jordan, was an inventive mise-en-scene, reminiscent of expressionist strategies. It brought some fresh air to Dublin’s theatrical scene. The focus of Howard Davies production of Juno and the Paycock, which opened on September 30^th, is very obviously on acting again. However, the set, in which comedy and tragedy are artfully mingled is itself a mixture of realism and stylisation. The Boyle’s tenement flat,  with its sparsely furnished room as described by the author, its rumbling walls and dirty stuccoed high ceiling is a visual metaphor for the misery in which they live. There is a great sense for detail, including the scraps of red velvet curtains as another reminder of faded Georgian magnificence or the horseshoe above the entrance close to the picture of the Virgin. The co-existence of Catholic iconography and superstition supports the very idea of realism turned into stereotypical Irishness and its clichéd repertory is not avoided. Subtle changes of light make the space gloomy. The incessant rain and the thunder in the last act echo the play’s changing tone towards tragedy; the gunshots from backstage recall the Civil War in 1922, the time in which the action takes place.

Ciarán Hinds plays the male lead in a virtuous, extremely expressive manner with expansive gestures, slightly-exaggerated facial expressions and a dramatic voice. His Boyle is the man who is constantly wearing a mask, a man who is a mere pretender and a living caricature. Indeed, Juno reveals that her husband’s past as a seafarer is only yarn and comments sarcastically on the fact that he is a chronic work-avoider. Hinds’s Boyle is both the impish drunkard and the pompous patriarch. The actor captures the various facets of the character showing how much the male protagonist is a stereotypical stage Irishman. However, he allows the viewer to see glimpses of humanity in the character. The role as approached in this production is physically demanding, sometimes close to slapstick, reminding of O’Casey’s interest in Vaudeville. If Hinds’s performance, full of comical turns, is highly entertaining, the character is a tragic figure pointing to the very idea of crisis in existential and social, cultural and historical terms. Masculinity is called into doubt, a topic much cherished by contemporary Irish playwrights and film-makers.

Boyle’s weakness and lack of self-criticism is opposed to the Juno-character, magnificently played by Sinéad Cusack. She is the worn-out, frail woman who is nevertheless witty and active, desperate and full of joy. Cusack plays her in a wonderfully nuanced mixture of realism and comedy, challenging Hinds’s theatrical tour de force. Her character is the only one able to develop, leaving the peacock for a new future and a new generation. Mary’s child will have no father, but two mothers. Juno’s message is that of hope allowing a still relevant gendered reading of the play.

O’Casey’s representation of the poor as indolent, ignorant, disloyal and irresponsible might be questionable in a time in which such a view is part of a prejudicial political discourse against the socially excluded. The feckless Irishman, embodied by Boyle and his echo Joxer, is another stereotype which encounters other, more fashionable clichés of Ireland and Irishnes, such as the lament which is played at the rise of the curtain or the song “The Luck of the Irish” in the play. The stereotypes are challenged by the energetic play of a great ensemble of actors, creating astonishingly abrupt changes from joy to despair, from grief to pathos.

The production succeeds in connecting a particular historical period with the present and in celebrating the universal theme of human energy. It unmasks the illusions created by capitalism in a very discreet but efficient manner. O’Casey’s critical attitude towards bigotry, false bourgeois respectability and capitalist strategies as well as his appeal for loyalty and solidarity are still valid today. Moreover, they are once again main topics of a political discourse. The flat they inhabit, the language they speak, knowledge, the material and the spiritual – all is plundered in the play and in the production culminates with Captain Boyle/Hinds lying dead drunk on the bare floor of his empty flat. The audience’s reaction on opening night showed that the entertaining aspects of Juno and the Paycock work tremendously well. Let’s hope that the emotional participation leads to the deeper meaning of the play and its great relevancy for today.

Reviewed by Andrea Grunert on October 1^st 2011.

Juno and the Paycock is a co-production between the Abbey Theatre and the National Theatre of Great Britain, playing at the Abbey Theatre from 21 September to 5 November 2011.

Director: Howard Davies. Set & costume design: Bob Crowley. Lighting design: James Farncombe. Composer: Anna Rice. Cast: Sinéad Cusack (Juno Boyle), Ciarán Hinds (Captain Jack Boyle), Risteárd Cooper (Joxer Daly), Claire Dunne (Mary Boyle), Ronan Raftery (Johnny Boyle), Nick Lee (Charles Bentham), Janet Moran (Mrs. Maisie Madigan), Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (Jerry Devine), Bernadette McKenna (Mrs. Tancred), Dermot Kerrigan (Needle Nugent) ….