J. Smith-Cameron to Launch Irish Rep Season with Juno and the Paycock; Beckett Plays with Puppets to Follow

Stage and screen star J. Smith-Cameron will lead the Irish Repertory Theatre’s forthcoming production of Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock, which will kick off Irish Rep’s 26th season off-Broadway.

Smith-Cameron will star as Juno Boyle, joined by Ciaran O’Reilly as “Captain” Jack Boyle and John Keating as Joxer Daly. The ensemble includes Ed Malone, Mary Mallen, Ciaran Byrne, Terry Donnelly, Laurence Lowry, Kern McFadden, David O’Hara, James Russell and Fiana Toibin in the production directed by Irish Rep Artistic Director Charlotte Moore.

Smith-Cameron is a staple of both the stage and screen, with her numerous Broadway credits including Our Country’s Good (1991 Tony nomination), Lend Me a Tenor, Wild Honey, The Play’s the Thing, Tartuffe and After the Night and the Music. Her film and TV resume includes Rectify, True Blood, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, Guiding Light, Margaret and Man on a Ledge.

Juno and the Paycock will fetaure set design by James Noone, costumes by David Toser, lighting by Brian Nason and sound by M. Florian Staab. The play—a comic and tragic look at a working class family living in Dublin as the city is torn apart by the chaos of the Irish Civil War—runs from October 9 through December 8 on the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage. Opening night is set for October 20.

Up next for Irish Rep will be the New York premiere of A Mind-Bending Evening of Beckett, a presentation of three of Samuel Beckett’s short plays presented in Beckett’s absurdist, minimal style with direction and puppet design by puppeteer veteran Bob Flanagan. The trio of plays (Act Without Words, Breath and Play) will run from October 16 through December 1 in the W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre, with opening scheduled for October 22.

The Irish Rep’s Christmas show will also be announced shortly.