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Mark Rylance – aka the world’s greatest living stage actor and an Oscar-winner to boot – and J Smith-Cameron – aka Gerri from Succession but also a veteran Broadway and off-Broadway actor – join forces this autumn to star in a major West End revival for the Seán O’Casey’s classic Irish play ‘Juno and the Paycock’, helmed by West End super-producer Sonia Friedman.
Directed by Old Vic boss Matthew Warchus at the Gielgud Theatre – his seventh collaboration with Rylance – the 1924 tragicomedy follows the Boyles, a shambolic Irish family trying to scrape by in the tenements of Dublin during the Irish Civil War. Rylance will star as drunken rogue Jack Boyle, with Smith-Cameron as Juno, his sharp-witted wife essentially tasked with looking after everyone. ‘Paycock’ is, of course, peacock said in an Irish accent – what Juno calls Jack.
As funny as it is dark, ‘Juno and the Paycock’ is O’Casey’s best-known and most-performed play, but you’d have to go back to the early ’90s to find a West End production. This centenary production is probably its biggest to date.
Rylance is a prolific stage actor, last seen in the West End last year with ‘Dr Semmelweis’ and the year before that in a revival of the landmark ‘Jerusalem’. This will be Smith-Cameron’s UK debut, though she has dozens of appearances on the New York stage under her belt – including starring in this same play, in the same role, back in 2014.
‘Juno and the Paycock’ is at the Gielgud Theatre, Sep 21-Nov 23. Tickets go on sale Friday May 24 or Thursday May 23 if you sign up for priority booking here.
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