The Information On: `Juno and the Paycock'

What Is It?

John Crowley's lucid, if slightly underpowered production of Sean O'Casey's 1924 Dublin-set masterpiece of domestic strife played out against a background of civil war. Coincidentally, O'Casey's tragedy is also playing at Dublin's Gaiety Theatre in a production by Garry Hynes, with Michael Gambon in the title role.

Who's In It?

Dearbhla Molloy turns in a fine, understated performance as the long- suffering Juno, while Colm Meaney plays her feckless husband, "Captain" Jack Boyle, who, together with his croney Joxer (Ron Cook) pushes her tolerance to the limits.

What They Say About Them

"Colm Meaney nicely brings out the dim-wittedness of the `Captain'. He and Cook may not project all the ugly malign vitality there is in this pair, but you'll never forget the ghastly moment, at the end, when Cook's plastered Joxer steadies himself sufficiently to bend down and pocket the last sixpence spilled by his insensible companion," Paul Taylor, The Independent.

"John Crowley's new production may not plunge searchingly into O'Casey's darker waters, but it stokes up a real theatrical blaze by the end," Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard.

"It's a fine production in which the Boyles become a potent symbol of Ireland's own fractious civil war," Michael Billington, The Guardian.

Where You Can See Them

Juno and the Paycock is at the Donmar Warehouse, London WC2 (0171-369 1732) to 6 Nov