A Drama in Three Acts
By Seán O’Casey     Directed By Robert Fox

The Play

The setting is in the tenement home of the Boyle family in Dublin in 1922. Captain Boyle, also known as “the paycock” is a lazy lout and spends his days with his friend Joxer in the local pub, when they can afford it. Mrs Boyle (Juno) can hardly keep the family together, money is so scarce. Their son, Johnny, is a cripple as a result of a bullet received in The 1916 Rebellion. He is nervous and paranoid due to a fear of the Free Staters and now his own Irregulars want him for the betrayal of Commandant Tancred. Daughter, Mary, has high hopes and fancy tastes for a better life. She has discarded her lover, Jerry Devine, a trade-union organizer for a handsome school teacher and law student, Charles Bentham. The family are well received and get along in harmony with their neighbors.

The Captain learns he is about to inherit a fortune and the family becomes high and haughty with their working-class friends and neighbors. The whole family goes on a shopping spree and they rack up some serious debt. They have stretched their credit with local business and tradesmen to the limit. However, as the “sand-castles” start to disintegrate around them the Paycock and his good side-kick Joxer remain oblivious to it all.

O’Casey has given us a look at life in Dublin under the thumb of the colonizer. ( A far cry from the modern Dublin of today ) and his timeless witticism can be best appreciated in the Paycock’s final line in the play. “The whole world’s in a terrible state of chaos.”

The Cast