Old Play in Manhattan

Juno and the Paycock (by Sean O'Casey; produced by Edward Choate & Arthur Shields in association with Robert Edmond Jones). Flung on the Broadway pavement many times since it was minted in Dublin in 1924, Juno and the Paycock still rings out like a silver coin. Whatever its faults, there is nothing pinched or paltry about it. Its stagecraft is clumsy at times and its plot too theatrical, but its background is richly Irish and its two middle-aged title characters--sturdy, ill-used, valiant-hearted Juno and her strutting, shiftless, drunken Paycock of a husband--are abundantly alive.

Juno and the Paycock shows a family meeting a tragic fate through the weaknesses of a comic character. The Paycock's artful dodges and arrant hypocrisies, his braggart airs and grandly drunken delusions, are uproariously funny. But eventually his besotted dance is over and the piper must be paid. Then the light falls on Juno, who--her son murdered, her daughter betrayed, her home destroyed--goes forth, heart crumpled but head high, to begin life over.

The tragic last act of Juno and the Paycock is spoiled by wanton melodrama. Too late, too violently, O'Casey pushes the son and daughter into the limelight. Their fate--not having the full force of the play behind it --seems manipulated, its effect on Juno mawkish. But it is proof of O'Casey's real power that his Paycock should remain comic from start to finish. The Paycock is a callous wastrel for whom O'Casey has only bitter scorn; but he is a born "character," and O'Casey lets him cut his capers without ever railing at him.

In the current revival of Juno and the Paycock, two distinguished Abbey Theatre players--Sara Allgood and Barry Fitzgerald--act the title roles (long familiar to them) with wonderful skill and spirit. Actor Fitzgerald's is the showier part, but Actress Allgood gives the more memorable performance. The supporting cast is feeble.

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