Mark Rylance: Sabotage on Shaftesbury Avenue

 Juno and the Paycock at the Gielgud Theatre

As someone who believes that actors should act and is not too worried about cultural appropriation, I cheerfully headed off to Juno at the Gielgud Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in London last Monday not a whit put out by the fact that the three main characters consisted of two Brits and a Yank. I had, however, seen the definitive version of this play with Donal McCann as Captain Boyle, Geraldine Plunkett as Juno and John Kavanagh as Joxer at the Gate in the 1980s – so that set a very high bar against which to measure this production. 

I was distracted, initially, by the accents employed by the main characters as they slipped in and out of bad Irish imitations. However, I soon adjusted and at worst it was a minor flaw. A more obvious problem was the serious miscasting of Paul Hilton as Joxer. There was nothing wrong with his acting, he was just the wrong physical type for the character. Joxer is a Dublin sleeveen, twisted, rancorous, unreliable and a far cry from any suggestion of nobility. John Kavanagh captured these qualities in his whining, insinuating, physically contorted portrayal. Hilton on the other hand (tall, dark and handsome) looked the physical type to play Robin Hood or the hero of a Jane Austen TV adaptation. And that swallow dive through the open window by Hilton was grossly out of character for the barfly Joxer (obviously we blame the director for that). Worse than this miscasting was the outrageous over the top version of Captain Boyle offered to us by Mark Rylance. A actor I admire for his Shakespearean work and for his TV portrayal of Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall. First of all, what was the Charlie Chaplin look (down to the little moustache) all about? A warning to the audience perhaps of the clowning to come. Captain Boyle was a Dublin layabout not a cheeky chappy and all Rylance’s prat-falling, hamming and physical comedy was incongruous and distracted from the story. It’s Boyle’s use and abuse of language that’s important and not his physical carry on - it was an incongruous and unsuccessful interpretation. The rest of the cast were mighty fine.  J. Smith Cameron (the General Counsel from Succession) was a decent Juno – notwithstanding the occasionally faltering accent. And Anna Healy chewed the scenery as the larger than life Mrs. Madigan. The overall staging and set design was impressive – particularly the tour de force of the tragic third act. However, the scene at the end, where the Captain accidentally shoots Joxer, is not in O’Casey’s script and adds absolutely nothing to the conclusion. I’d have given it four out of five if it weren’t for Rylance’s sabotaging of the main role.