Mark Rylance and J. Smith-Cameron to star in 'Juno and the Paycock' in the West End

Mark Rylance will play ‘Captain’ Jack Boyle, while J. Smith-Cameron will star as Juno Boyle in Seán O’Casey's play, which is set during the Irish Civil War.

Oscar, Olivier, and Tony Award winner Mark Rylance and Succession's J. Smith-Cameron will star in a new production of Seán O’Casey's Juno and the Paycock, which opens at the Gielgud Theatre on 3 October, with previews from 21 September.

Rylance, who won an Olivier and a Tony award for his performance as Johnny "Rooster" Byron in Jersualem, will play ‘Captain’ Jack Boyle, while Tony nominee Smith-Cameron will make her West End debut as Juno Boyle. Tony and Olivier award winner Matthew Warchus (Matilda The Musical, Pride) directs.

The creative team includes Rob Howell (set and costume designer), Hugh Vanstone (lighting designer), and Claire van Kampen (composer).

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.”

Set in Dublin, 1922, during the Irish Civil War, 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.

Further casting is to be announced.

Check back for Juno and the Paycock tickets on London Theatre.

Photo credit: Mark Rylance and J. Smith-Cameron. (Photos courtesy of production)