“The Whole World’s in a Terrible State of Chassis”
Five and a quarter years ago, in December 2013, I reviewed the
Irish Repertory Theatre’s excellent production, under Charlotte Moore’s direction,
of Juno
and the Paycock, starring J. Cameron
Smith and Ciarán O’Reilly as the eponymous married couple. The Irish Rep has
again revived the play, this time with Neil Pepe directing, as part of its not-to-be
missed, three-play O’Casey cycle, which got off to a magnificent start with The
Shadow of a Gunman and will soon add The
Plough and the Stars. The new Juno and
the Paycock stars Maryann Plunkett as Juno but O’Reilly returns as the Paycock, while
several others from the previous cast join them, namely, Ed Malone as Johnny
Boyle, Terry Donnelly as Maisie Madigan, John Keating as Joxer Daly, and James
Russell as Charles Bentham.
The following review combines comment on the current production with
liberal helpings from my earlier coverage.
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| Maryann Plunkett, Ciarán O’Reilly. Photo: Carol Rosegg. |
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| Sarah Street, Ed Malone, Maryann Plunkett. Photo: Carol Rosegg. |
It’s not a perfect production, but it’s about
as good a one as any American company can be expected to offer, especially one
ensconced in a physically limited Off-Broadway venue. Interestingly, the new production
turns the entire theatre, including the passageway to the auditorium, into the
crumbling tenement in which the Boyles and their colorful neighbors reside.
Laundry hangs over the audience’s heads, the audience right wall is fitted with
bricks, a door, and windows, and even the small, offstage area, visible at stage
right only to those seated on the audience left side, looks believably like the
hall outside the door to the Boyle’s flat.
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| Maryann Plunkett, Sarah Street, Ed Malone. Photo: Carol Rosegg. |
As expected of any production at this
invaluable institution, the accents, atmosphere, and emotional atmosphere of
1922 Dublin are captured with loving authenticity. The oddly situated stage
demands creative readjustments to accommodate O’Casey’s requirements.
Nevertheless, we get—through Charlie Corcoran’s naturalistic set design, Michael
Gottlieb’s sensitive lighting, Linda Fisher and David Toser’s period-perfect costumes,
and Ryan Rumery and M. Florian Staab’s sound design—a true enough sense of the
peeling-wallpaper, tattered-clothing shabbiness in which “Captain” Jack Boyle;
his wife, Juno; his daughter, Mary (Sarah Street); and his son, Johnny (Ed
Malone) are forced to live.
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| Maryann Plunkett, Sarah Street. Photo: Carol Rosegg. |
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| Maryann Plunkett, Ciarán O’Reilly. Photo: Carol Rosegg. |
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| Harry Smith, Sarah Street. Photo: Carol Rosegg. |
Juno and the Paycock is rich in
character and incident, and, despite its closeness to a particular time and
place, hasn’t lost its universality and power. In The Irish Dramatic
Movement, Una Ellis-Fermor, writing of it and O’Casey’s other early plays,
notes that “he reveals, almost as though unconscious of the novelty of his
picture, the easy, vigorous, expressive speech and action of people in
continual and inescapable contact with their fellows; the mixture of
good-fellowship and protective, selfish indifference. His people reveal now the
distracted, unstable habits of mind that spring from continual stimulus and a
procession of minor excitements, now the seemingly callous detachment, the
bleak and lonely obstinacy that is a stronger personality’s resistance to this
bombardment directed upon its attention and emotion.”
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| John Keating, Robert Langdon Lloyd. Photo: Carol Rosegg. |
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| Ed Malone, Sarah Street, James Russell, Maryann Plunkett, Ciarán O’Reilly. Photo: Carol Rosegg. |
Ciarán O’Reilly excels as Capt. Boyle,
the blustery, shiftless, blarney-spouting head of the household, regaling the
world with his fantasies about once being a world traveling sailor, and
complaining of leg pains whenever the possibility of work arises. Maryann Plunkett,
like her predecessor, is superb as Juno, the pious, decent, stalwart
wife and mother, who has no truck with Jack’s foolishness yet is herself
foolish enough to entrust him with handling affairs after the family learns of
a fortune it presumably has inherited.
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| John Keating, Maryann Plunkett, Ciarán O’Reilly. Photo: Carol Rosegg. |
Each actor brings true conviction to their
demanding roles, he as the drink-sodden loudmouth, she as the maternal force
constantly fighting an uphill battle against his eternal malingering and
ignorance, while also facing the problems created by Mary’s romantic
affairs and the physically and psychologically damaged Johnny's fears regarding
retribution for his actions in the political strife.
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| Meg Hennessy, Ūna Clancy, Maryann Plunkett, Michael Mellamphy. Photo: Carol Rosegg. |
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| Ciarán O’Reilly, John Keating. Photo: Carol Rosegg. |
In 2013, I was less impressed by John
Keating's Joxer and Ed Malone’s Johnny. Keating’s interpretation of Joxer,
constantly spouting aphorisms and calling everything “daarlin,” has grown deeper,
and, while he still plays broadly, it seems to fit much better now and he no
longer misses the subtle lyricism and humor given by O’Casey even to this
creepy character. Malone’s Johnny, who lost an arm and was shot in the hip
during the conflict, still seems too whiny and unsympathetic. He also appears a
bit too old for the part.
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| Terry Donnelly, Ed Malone, John Keating, Ciarán O’Reilly, Maryann Plunkett, John Keating. Photo: Carol Rosegg. |
O’Casey often fills Jack Boyle’s mouth with
mangled eloquence, as when he asks, “I ofen looked up at the sky an’ assed
meself the question—what is the moon, what is the stars?” Whatever they are,
they’re shining on this revival, belying Jack’s favorite mantra, “The whole
world’s in a terrible state of chassis.”
Irish Repertory Theatre
132 W. 22nd St., NYC
Through May 25
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