Juno and the Paycock

Abstract

Some day, somewhere, some young people will be thinking enviously of the time when Sean O’Casey was writing mighty plays and Barry Fitzgerald and Sara Allgood were around to act them. The first half of the twentieth century will seem like a golden age when it is over. At the moment when things occur it is the fashion to take them casually. A revival of Juno and the Paycock, with Mr Fitzgerald as Captain Boyle and Miss Allgood as his valiant wife, may seem like only an interesting interlude in the midst of a languid season.¹ But the O’Casey drama of civil war in Ireland in 1922 ranks with the finest work in modern English, and Mr Fitzgerald and Miss Allgood play it like inspired actors. To people of moderate temperament this paragraph of introduction may seem to be in too high a key. But it proceeds from sober conviction and it is intended to arouse theatregoers to realization of one thing that is going on under their noses. The time to appreciate notable occasions is when they are happening.

The New York Times (28 Jan. 1940).