J. Smith-Cameron and Mark Rylance Will Lead JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK, Directed by Matthew Warchus

Tony award-nominee J. Smith-Cameron (Succession) will star as Juno Boyle opposite Mark Rylance as ‘Captain’ Jack Boyle in a new production of Seán O’Casey's Juno and the Paycock, directed by Tony and Olivier award-winner Matthew Warchus (Matilda The Musical, Pride).  

The strictly limited run at the Gielgud Theatre opens on Thursday 3 October, with previews from Saturday 21 September, and will run until Saturday 23 November 2024.

Juno and the Paycock sees Sonia Friedman, Matthew Warchus and Mark Rylance reunite following their acclaimed productions of Boeing-Boeing and La Bête. Further casting to be announced.

The creative team is Rob Howell (Set and Costume Designer), Hugh Vanstone (Lighting Designer), Claire van Kampen (Composer) and Serena Hill CDG (Casting Director).

Priority booking opens on Thursday 23 May, to DMT+ Members at 10am, and to those signed up for priority booking at 11am, with general booking opening on Friday 24 May at 10am. Individuals can sign up for priority booking here: www.JunoAndThePaycock.com

As part of an ongoing commitment to make theatre accessible for as many people as possible, there are over 1100 tickets per week at £25 or lower, with 35% of the house for every performance priced at £55 or lower.

Matthew Warchus said, “I have long been in love with this staggeringly great melodrama - a play which collides an Irish working-class domestic tragedy with some of the comedic bravura of the 1920s Music Hall in an unforgettable indictment of the chaos of civil war. I’m very excited to be embarking on my seventh collaboration with Mark Rylance, and my first with the brilliant American actress J. Smith-Cameron, on the 100-year anniversary production of this internationally acclaimed, strikingly relevant, Irish classic.”

J. Smith-Cameron said, “Juno and the Paycock is not simply a brilliant piece of theatre but an eternally relevant play so long as people must endure violent repression. The prospect of revisiting this work in the company of the great director Matthew Warchus and the truly legendary Mark Rylance absolutely floors me; I couldn't be more thrilled.”

Mark Rylance said, “It is a joy to be playing Seán O’Casey’s masterpiece with J. Smith-Cameron, and to be doing so in its 100th anniversary year. I am also delighted to be reuniting with Matthew Warchus on what will be our seventh theatrical collaboration and with Sonia Friedman who has supported me in eight previous productions.”

Dublin, 1922, the Irish Civil War is tearing the nation apart. In the cauldron of the family’s tiny tenement flat, Juno Boyle, a beleaguered matriarch whose sharp wit is a survival tool, struggles to make ends meet and keep the family together. Her husband, ‘Captain’ Jack Boyle, fancies himself a ship's commander but sails no further than the pub. When providence comes knocking with life changing news, could the family’s troubles finally fade away?

Poetic, poignant, and hilarious, Juno and the Paycock is a big-hearted, black-humoured, tragi-comic triumph that reflects on a mother’s resilience in the midst of life’s most trying moments.

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