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Stage Review: O'Casey's tragicomedy comes vibrantly to life
Thursday, April 29, 1999 By Richard E. Rauh
If you listen to Captain Jack Boyle, the drunken, blowhard husband in Sean O'Casey's tragicomedy, "Juno and the Paycock," the world is "in a terrible state of chassis." That's Boyle's word for chaos, and he wouldn't be wrong. But the fact is the troubles aren't just on the bloody streets of Dublin; they're also inside Boyle's head and heart.
O'Casey's lyrical play, now being presented by the Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, is set in 1922 after the Anglo-Irish war. Now, incredibly, the country is thrown into a civil war, and we watch a seemingly content family fall apart.
Boyle's world is a dreary tenement flat (nicely realized by David Henderson, though the walls could be grimier and the furniture really decrepit). And Boyle seems ill-equipped to handle much of anything, spending much of his time in various states of inebriation. David Doepkin's masterful portrayal brings out all of his comic evasions, lies, bluff and bombast.
When Boyle wants to avoid realities, he simply complains that his legs ache, or he goes off with his pub pal, Joxer Daly, to have a pint. This duo must have inspired Beckett to create his comic hobos in "Waiting for Godot" 30 years later.
The two are always amusing, but E. Bruce Hill gives an inspired take on Joxer. He makes him into an impish con artist and sycophant, who sings, spouts aphorisms, and thinks everything is "darlin'" -- including funerals.
O'Casey's canvas is broad, and he means to rouse the Irish spirit. But there seems to be little place for an anachronism like Boyle in a new Ireland.
Director Hal O'Leary makes good use of the purposely cramped stage space, and he has cast well. Susan McGregor-Laine gives an expertly focused and unsentimentalized performance of Boyle's long-suffering wife, Juno.
Other standouts in the cast include Ginger Auld's delightful tipsy and boisterous neighbor; Arlene Merryman's finely etched grieving mother of a son lost in the Civil War; Tom Cogley's surly son; Stephanie Riso's pleasing daughter; and Andrew Paul's chilly Englishman.
So O'Casey shows us the Irish spirit, the ability to endure the endless "troubles." That is their strength, and it is the perfect answer to the insincere and uncaring Boyles and Joxers of the world. They may think Ireland is going to hell, but the Irish know better.
Richard E. Rauh is a freelance drama critic for the Post-Gazette.
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Where: Lester Hamburg Studio Theater, Bingham and 13th, South Side.