Niamh Cusack in June and the Paycock at the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre. Photograph by Stephen Vaughan.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10Cast: Niamh Cusack, Des McAleer, Neil Caple, Jonathan Charles, Louis Dempsey, Donal Gallery, Maggie McCarthy, Aoife McMahon, Robin Morrissey, Maureen O’ Connell, Fionn Walton.
When you have nothing, you can only go one way, unless of course life conspires against you so much that all your efforts, all the trials you have endured come back to haunt you and you end up with less than you could have imagined.
Against the back drop of the Irish Civil War, Juno and the Paycock, one of the trilogy of plays from the great Irish playwright Sean O’ Casey dealing with the after effects of the First World War, The Easter Uprising in 1916 and the subsequent war in which so much bitterness and bloodshed seemed to congeal and separate a nation, The Boyle family are just about surviving the damage wrecked upon them by a society in tatters, the tenement blocks are overflowing and disease, misery and unrest seeps out everywhere and yet there is always at least some sunshine that can creep into the life of all.
Whilst the play is lengthy, something that audiences should expect when looking at the history of both Sean O’ Casey and the times he was influenced by, it doesn’t lack any punch or any stirrings of the emotions. For many who go to the Playhouse to see it, the play will be an eye opener of history in a city that was badly let down, not just by the British, but also by those supposedly in charge of a population whose only crime was to be under the spectre of mass unemployment and depravation a decade before the great depression hit the world.
Where the play stands out is in the area of timing, by allowing the first half of the show to stand at around 90 minutes, it consents the audience to take in the familiarity and enjoyment afforded life even in the direst of circumstances whilst still showing that the war and social imbalance was still prevalent, whilst the second shorter half flipped these two states of affairs round. Director Gemma Bodinetz took this and made it perfect and it showed the battle, the war was not just between thought and ideology but in the minds of how people acted around each other and with their own family and friends.
Niamh Cusack and Des McAleer were outstanding as both Juno and Captain Jack Boyle. Niamh Cusack especially gave such a commanding performance of a woman who was juggling a daughter who had begun to hanker for the finer things in life, a son whose past participation in the war had started to catch up with him and whose husband had lost his way until shown a life that could not continue. Niamh Cusack was a sheer delight in the role of Juno and one that was arguably made for her immense talent.
Juno and the Paycock is as relevant now in an age in which will be looked at in historical terms as the second great depression as it was nearly a 100 years ago. A magnificent piece of theatre and one whose message should not be ignored!
Ian D. Hall