The Abbey Theatre production of Juno and the Paycock had its premiere less than a year after the successful staging of The Shadow of a Gunman, on March 3, 1924. The production consolidated O’Casey’s reputation as the leading dramatist to emerge in the immediate aftermath of Irish independence. Juno and the Paycock, however, is far superior to the earlier work in terms of its scope, its ambition, and its tragic impact. Yet the play’s opening sequence may strike the reader as a continuation of The Shadow of a Gunman.
The time is two years later, and the historical context is the Irish Civil War, which followed the attainment of Irish independence in 1921. Johnny Boyle initially opposed Irish independence on the terms agreed to with England. He was unable to maintain this position, however, and this led to his betrayal of Robbie Tancred, his former comrade. The fact that Tancred was also a close neighbor brings home graphically the murderous intimacy of the Civil War. Yet it also sets the stage for the bitter domestic strife that consumes the Boyle family. Public and private experience are reflected in each other, as they are in The Shadow of a Gunman, though in a much more elaborate and assured manner.
Not only is Johnny’s situation a public version of his family’s inner conflicts; it is also reflected in what happens to his sister, Mary. At the beginning of the play, she also is presented as a person of principle. Yet she is unable to uphold her beliefs. The consequences of this failure are not as severe as they are in Johnny’s case. At the same time, it is her affair with Bentham that brings about the final rift in the family, a rift that the end of the play does not suggest can be healed. When, at the end, Captain Boyle drunkenly intones that the blinds are down, he is...
(The entire section is 756 words.)