Juno and the Paycock Review – Mark Rylance brings some humor to a mumbled, everyday drama – Liam O’Dell

Mumbling theater titan Mark Rylance as Irish “Peacock” Jack Boyle can only mumble so much that can be attributed to his hapless character before it becomes a failure by the accomplished actor to master the art of projection. I must immediately emphasize that I am not biased in saying all this (see the note at the bottom of this review for some important context), but the accents are thickwhich makes it almost impossible to follow the little plot in Seán O’Casey’s comedy.

The premise is that a work-shy “captain” named Jack, criticized by his strict wife Juno (J. Smith-Cameron), learns that he has become significantly richer thanks to an inheritance left by a family member and us in a will will watch as he adjusts to the lavish lifestyle this payment supposedly promises him. The fact that the first of three acts (in which director Matthew Warchus decides to take the break) just ends with Jack being made aware of the will by a man named Charles Bentham (The Lieutenant of Inishmore(Chris Walley) tells you everything you need to know about how bloated this story seems.

Luckily, I was able to guess a lot of details about the characters based on physical clues. Son Johnny (Eimhin Fitzgerald Doherty) – who lost an arm during the Revolutionary War – is clearly distraught and still touched by the experience, while daughter Mary (Aisling Kearns) clearly has feelings for Charles, given how much she is into it It is important to be close to him at every opportunity.

And what about Rylance’s central performance? In keeping with the above, he gives the audience several wide-eyed, panicked looks as he’s the only one consistently breaking the fourth wall – the main unintentional humor behind this being that I’m certainly not going to be of much help to him. What if I have no idea what’s happening on stage for most of the production? He behaves with a ridiculous shyness that sometimes borders on mime, which is also reflected in his dialogue, where he is so often surprised by the words that come out of his mouth before stumbling and stuttering to make sense of them. His commitment and exaggerated enthusiasm for the bare minimum is also commendable, such as when interacting with the guests during the meaningless party scene filler in the second act.

In the second act, the red silk curtains fall and Johnny hyperventilates with fear of visions and paranoia, which would have been a far more dramatic and interesting point to go into intermission (which would have the implication that everything is about to fall apart, and that basic principle of keeping the audience wondering what happens next) rather than Warchus, which makes us wait several minutes for the third and final act.

Incidentally, the curtains are part of the set design by Rob Howell, who transforms the Gielgud into a decaying stone house, artistically symbolizing the crumbling foundations of this dysfunctional Irish family. A cross hangs continuously from the ceiling. I felt this was a disappointing underuse of space until the set expanded outward in the gloomy third act once everything material and self-evident was stripped away.

Is that a spoiler? Well, considering the actors on the show are clearly seen as movers, I don’t think so. Boyle’s confession to Juno that all the talk of inheritance was missing a key detail, arguably the play’s most important plot point, is muttered by Rylance. I had to strain my ears to make out important details even though my hearing aids were on full blast. By the end I was tired, and what’s more, I found this piece about a mediocre existence that disintegrated into nothing to be neither touching nor amusing.

Juno and the Paycock is now playing at the Gielgud Theater until November 23rd.

It will be interpreted into British Sign Language (BSL) on October 19th, with audio description on November 2nd and subtitles on November 9th.

Production images: Manuel Harlan.

Note: As a deaf critic, my opinion of a theater performance depends on my ability to hear the production. Unfortunately, due to the heavy Irish accents in the show, the poor projection of the performers, and the fact that I wasn’t sitting as close to the stage as possible, I was unable to hear significant parts of the piece. This information should be taken into account when reading the review above.

Disclaimer: I was invited to see Juno and the Paycock for free in exchange for a press review of the performance. I received no payment for this article and all opinions stated above are honest and my own.