Mark Rylance and Succession's J. Smith-Cameron to Star in Juno and the Paycock in London

Tony nominee J. Smith-Cameron and multiple Tony winner Mark Rylance will star in a new production of Seán O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock in the West End, directed by Matthew Warchus (Matilda). The strictly limited run will begin performances at the Gielgud Theatre on September 21, with an official opening set for October 3, and run through November 23.

“Juno and the Paycock is not simply a brilliant piece of theater but an eternally relevant play so long as people must endure violent repression,” Smith-Cameron said in a statement. “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.”

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 [the producer] Sonia Friedman who has supported me in eight previous productions.”

An actor, playwright, director and knight, Rylance has won Tony Awards for his performances in Boeing-Boeing, Twelfth Night and Jerusalem, and earned nominations for Richard III and Farinelli and the King. He has won two Olivier Awards for Jerusalem and Much Ado About Nothing. His screen work includes Bridge of Spies and Wolf Hall.

Cameron starred in the off-Broadway Irish Repertory Theater production of Juno and the Paycock in 2013, receiving a Drama Desk nomination. Since her Broadway debut in 1982, her Broadway credits include Lend Me a Tenor, Our Country’s Good (Tony nomination), The Real Inspector Hound and Tartuffe. She received two Emmy nominations for her performance in HBO’s Succession.

The show’s creative team is Rob Howell (set and costume design), Hugh Vanstone (lighting design), Claire van Kampen (composer) and Serena Hill CDG (casting director).

Dublin, 1922, the Irish Civil War is tearing the nation apart. In the cauldron of the family’s tiny tenement flat, Juno Boyle (Cameron), 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 (Rylance), 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.