Tuesday, February 17, 1998
Play runs like a ’20s ‘Jerry Springer’
THEATER: O’Casey’s
best-known work shows unique take on family life
By Michael Gillette
Daily Bruin Contributor
Your husband’s a drunk. Your daughter’s a tramp. And your son
lies around the house all day. No, you’re not a guest on "Jerry
Springer," you’re Juno, the heroine of Sean O’Casey’s best-known
play "Juno and the Paycock," running through March 8 at the the
Hudson Theatre.
And if at times you think your life resembles that of a weary
Ibsen protagonist, there is a good reason for that. O’Casey felt a
strong affinity for the feisty Dutchman and his axe-grinding,
point-having brand of theater and that fact is reflected here not
only in the overt references to "A Doll’s House" and "Ghosts" but
in the sober, heavy turns the drama takes as well.
O’Casey wrote the play in 1924 after having worked with the
Irish Nationalist movement and the Social-Labor movement, and it
reflects those experiences. The son who lies around, for instance,
does so because his arm was blown off by a bomb while he was
working with the freedom movement.
But for all of the politics and sociology at work in the play,
there’s a second more entertaining strain of influence in the text,
that of Irish humor. And while someone who is writing like Ibsen
isn’t going to sound like Oscar Wilde, he does create some robust
scenes, and even occasionally sounds like Bertolt Brecht, which is
always a good thing.
The action of the play revolves around an inheritance that’s to
be received by the Boyle family, which, naturally, couldn’t come at
a better time. The man of the house, Jack (Leon Russom) has been
dodging work for months, Johnny (Michael Salazar), as previously
mentioned, is laid up, and Mary (Christina Carlisi), the daughter,
is on strike.
As the play begins, Mary is being courted by a young union
organizer, but she throws him over for Charles Bentham, the British
man who brings the family the news of their fortune. It seems
Jack’s cousin has died and left him two thousand pounds.
In Act 2 we see the effect of the money on the family. The
Boyles borrow against the inheritance for furnishings and clothes
and even a gramophone. They spend an evening with friends drinking
and performing songs for one another that makes for lively, wistful
and very sophisticated theater.
As you might guess, what happens next isn’t happy. This play’s
success depends upon the actors playing Johnny and Juno, and in
this case the play is in very good hands. Leon Russom in the role
of Jack is by turns charming and detestable. He has to cover quite
a range to make the leaps the text requires and he never
falters.
Nancy Boykin as Juno calls for special praise. Boykin needs to
be bickering and petty in the play, while at the same time
projecting the undying flame of Juno’s compassion which is the only
thing holding her family together, as she herself knows. Boykin
handles this chore with great modesty and economy and never has a
false note.
One bit of miscasting comes with the part of Bentham, the
Englishman. Matt Sullivan plays the part, which is written as fey
and unlikable, in a way that is cartoonish and grotesque. It seems
a stretch to think this Bentham could ever have worked up the moxie
to kiss Mary, let alone impregnate her.
THEATER: "Juno and the Paycock" by Sean O’Casey runs through
March 8 at the Hudson Theater, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd. Hollywood.
Tickets are $20. For more info, call (818) 789-8499.