Crescent Theatre Blog

‘I met her in June; we were married in June, an’ Johnny was born in June, so wan day I says to her, ‘You should ha’ been called Juno’’[i]. While it’s pretty clear that Captain Boyle has no grounding in Classical mythology when he coins the pet name of Juno for his wife, it’s equally as certain that Sean O’Casey had good reason for naming his heroine after the vengeful queen of the gods, the Roman goddess of marriage, both wife and sister to Jupiter. In the first instance, it sheds a little more light on the title of the play because, as Ovid tells us in Metamorphoses, ‘the bird of Juno (was) the peacock who carries stars in her tail’[ii].

So - why Juno? Juno and the Paycock is set in a poor tenement block in Dublin, 1922, and follows the fortunes of the Boyle family mixing warm humour with serious social issues. One of its more obvious themes centres around the bloody civil war that was raging at the time between feuding Irish republicans; tearing apart families like those living in the Boyle’s tenement. But a less pronounced motif running through the play is the burgeoning influence of women in a society that has had its long-standing certainties destroyed by the ravages of the Great War. Perhaps it was this strident new voice of women that prompted O’Casey to name Mrs Boyle after the most important of the Roman goddesses. In the year the play is set women in Ireland gained the vote – years earlier than their counterparts in England. In the Boyle family, the only wage earners are Juno and her daughter Mary. Indicative of the growing rebelliousness of younger women in the era, Mary wants better. She is both politically active and dismissive of convention. Juno, far more pragmatic than her daughter, is holding house and home together. Her money feeds the family and keeps Boyle, and his drinking partner Joxer, in beer. She is, without doubt, the goddess of this marriage and the most important member of her family. And in keeping with her namesake, who was responsible for setting Hercules his labours, it is the men who often feel her wrath. This is not without reason. Boyle might consider himself akin to Jupiter but is of no more use than a strutting peacock. Unfortunately, the Captain’s only resemblance to the gods resides in his alcohol-induced daydreams. Without Juno, his world would have long since fallen into his predicted ‘terrible state o’ chassis’[iii].       

Rehearsals are still at an early stage but the cast are already exploring the mindsets of their characters. They are also working hard on perfecting their Dublin accents! There have been plenty of laughs combined with searching discussion. In performance, the play promises much of the same. You can see it at The Crescent Studio Theatre from October 3^rd to 10^th inclusive. 

October seems like a lifetime away.

Crisp autumnal nights and the onset of winter are the last thing we are all thinking about at the moment, as we head off on our summer holidays looking for the sun block and making the annual hunt for passport.

So yesterday as the cast met for the first time for Juno and the Paycock, we were struck by how much had to be done at the first read through of Sean O’Casey’s brilliantly funny but ultimately tragic play.

I always think of The Lord of the Rings at this point in rehearsals when King Théoden of Rohan looks at the hordes of Orcs and other creatures of middle earth about to attack and he says solemly ‘and so it begins…’

Unlike poor old King Théoden, I am dead excited about the journey if front of us…and so it begins…bring it on!