Juno and the Paycock, the Albery Theatre, London Reviewed by Judy Kendall THE GATE Theatre Dublin's production of Juno and the Paycock has been feted as the best production everand it was certainly very well staged.
The play deals with the dire poverty of many Dublin people in the years after the 1916 Easter Rising. It is set in a confusing and tragic background of bullets and funerals and government soldiers.
The difficulties of their condition are reflected in the set. The dull browns and greys of the impoverished tenement flat are brightened by the gorgeous red of wealth, in the second act, only to be stripped completely bare by the end. leavina us with a last memorable image as Joxer (Mark Lambert) and ine Captain (Niall Buggy) scrabble about like rats in the now empty flat.
Joxer was a particularly striking tigure, as he captured the audience with his elaborate and subtle scrounging techniques, tucking away an extra scrap of bread or tea into his copious rags when no-one was looking, and drawing obvious and easy parallels with the experlence of people forced to live on the streets of London today It is unfortunate that the other characters slipped easily into the stereotypes of the misunderstood IRA casualty and the poor downtrodden Irish giri, particularly as this play is as much a comment on the present situation in Ireland as it is an historical interpretation.
CINEMA
Obsession that can cost an arm and a leg REPI BLIC PETUKES PHIU NEAR YOU JUNE