Theatre
Juno and the Paycock
Seán O'Casey · 1924
Synopsis
In a flat in a Dublin working-class tenement, in 1922, at the start of the civil war, Juno Boyle keeps the family alive on her own: her husband, “Captain” Jack, idle, drinks with his crony Joxer Daly; their daughter Mary is on strike; their son Johnny, who lost an arm during the War of Independence, lives in fear of having informed on a comrade. At the end of the first act, the schoolteacher Charles Bentham tells them that a relative has left them something in his will.
Context
The play was first staged at the Abbey Theatre on 3 March 1924 and published the following year; it forms the central part of a Dublin trilogy, between a play of 1923 and another of 1926. It subsequently enjoyed lasting success in London, where the author settled, and Alfred Hitchcock made a film of it in 1930. Michel Habart translated it into French for L'Arche, where it opens the first volume of the author's theatre.
Who it is for
A tragicomedy in three acts, set in a single dwelling, in Dublin speech; translated into French.
Prizes and reception
Hawthornden Prize for imaginative literature, awarded to its author for this play and received in 1926.
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