Juno and the Paycock at The Lyttleton

Another day, another play, actually another Irish play – Juno and the Paycock at The Lyttleton.  Playboy of the Western World may have got the good reviews, but, for me this co-production with the Abbey Theatre, Dublin is better, mainly because there are no weak links in the acting department. 

With the Irish Civil War as a backdrop, Juno and the Paycock, set in a Dublin tenement in 1922, concerns the Boyle family;  the father “Captain” Jack Boyle, mother Juno, daughter, Mary and son Johnny.  Jack, excellently portrayed by Ciaran Hinds would rather tell “tall” sea stories than do a job of work.  The work ethic is only instilled in Juno, the stunningly effective Sinead Cusack, as Mary is on strike and Johnny, having lost an arm in the War of Independence, now lives his life in fear of being executed as a punishment for betraying a fellow IRA comrade.  The play brilliantly illustrates the family’s difficulties, celebrations when luck comes calling and heartache when they realise the luck was false.

The physical timing in some of the scenes is superb, testament to the fact that the cast are already immersed in their characters having been playing them in Dublin.  Janet Moran as neighbour Mrs. Maisie Madigan and Risteard Cooper playing Jack’s rogue of a drinking buddy, Joxer, lighten the whole proceedings really well and the duet with Juno and Mary is wonderfully touching.  In fact under Howard Davies’ direction and Bob Crowley’s design, Sean O’Casey’s devastating portrait of wasted potential in a Dublin torn apart by the chaos of War, is perfectly brought to life.  Finally, when the tragedy ultimately strikes Sinead Cusack is intensely moving.

My only reservation is that it took a little while for me to tune into the Dublin dialect, but once there I was hooked.

Hamlet at The Young Vic

It was Shakespeare last night, but with a definite twist.  Director Ian Rickson, Designer Jeremy Herbert and superlative actor Michael Sheen have brought a very different Hamlet to the Young Vic stage and, for me, it works perfectly. 

It’s not often that you enter a theatre by a completely different route, but as soon as the production started, I perfectly understood why it is the case here.  Initially the meandering walk to the auditorium was rather disconcerting and I couldn’t quite work out what was going on.  But that’s presumably the point.  Then the play began and all was revealed.  If no-one has set Hamlet in a present day mental hospital before, one wonders why not, for it actually makes perfect sense and illustrates so well the age old question, is it all in Hamlet’s mind?

Mind you, the whole effect is helped by the fact that Michael Sheen is quite brilliant.  He captures all the mental torment, imbuing the man with warmth, torment, sadness, anger and moments of maniacal laughter, making him totally and utterly believable.  I’ve read that he “is increasingly repulsed by acting”, meaning acting as opposed to reacting and he certainly practices what he preaches.  Another bonus is that he speaks the lines so wonderfully that there were times when I felt the script had been updated;  no need to concentrate to understand the meaning here, everything is perfectly clear.  How lucky are the students studying Hamlet who get the chance to see this production.

I also hugely enjoyed the performances by Vinette Robinson as Ophelia, Michael Gould as Polonius and James Clyde as Claudius, whilst not quite understanding the decision to make Horatio and Rosencrantz female and casting Benedict Wong as Laertes.  For me, it didn’t quite work but, no matter, everything else hit the button and I was captivated as soon as I entered the shabby auditorium, complete with basketball net!  The moments of high drama, surprising technical effects and complete black outs, kept me in that state right to the very end.

No need to compare this version of Hamlet with the recent high profile productions starring Jude Law, David Tenant and Rory Kinnear.  It stands alone.