22 March 2014

Juno and the Paycock

I transferred this some time ago, as a follow-up to my post of J. M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World, and then never posted it. I am here today to make amends and satisfy a promise made back in 2012.

Cusack and McKenna
Sean O'Casey's 1924 Juno and the Paycock is often considered a successor to Synge's 1907 masterpiece, and rightfully so, even though it is set in Dublin and Playboy in the rural west. Here the similarities are accentuated by the casting, with Siobhán McKenna, Marie Kean and producer Cyril Cusack among the cast, as they were in the Synge recording. Both productions are from 1955.

Like Playboy, this is a tragi-comedy among the working class with a female character as the fulcrum and ineffectual males. Here, McKenna (as Juno) is married to the loutish Captain Boyle (Seamus Kavanagh), with the setting amidst the Irish Civil War. As with the Synge play, the language is key to its success. This is not an easy play to bring off; the present cast succeeds beautifully. The recording has a spoken introduction by the playwright. The sound is good.

The download includes a booklet with O'Casey's preamble, essays, photos and a synopsis. I've included the text of the play from Project Gutenberg.

YouTube has the 1930 filmed adaptation, with the original Juno, Sara Allgood. It is directed by Alfred Hitchcock.


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7 comments:

  1. Buster22 March, 2014 15:42

    Link (Apple lossless):

    https://mega.co.nz/#!Kd1XlYaI!M-D3hmrhvq4X0hpFOuMldkyyyMII8sred59rYj6Mqbw

    ReplyDelete
  2. jserraglio25 March, 2014 09:41

    Thanks so much for this rarity. I love spoken word albums.
    Incidentally, you can find a rip from a 10" Capitol EP of Judy Garland singing Lionel Bart's Maggie May at Luigi's Vinyl Corner, provided you don't already have the record, which you probably do:
    http://luigis50s60svinylcorner.blogspot.com/2014/03/judy-garland320kbps.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. musmad26 March, 2014 19:02

    Thank you so much for this which has eluded me for years - I too love spoken word albums, and I fell in love with Siobhan McKenna's voice decades ago when I had the Caedmon recordings of Molly Bloom's soliliquy from Joyce's Ulysses and Shakespeare's 12th Night. She also recorded Shaw's St. Joan twice, once in America in connection with a Broadway run (RCA) - I have this, but not the other recording she did for Irish radio. You gave us Playboy, and there's also a film of her; she no longer looks the part, but she surely does sound the way the character is supposed to it (like opera singers before HD - now too many of them look the roles but cannot sing them!). You went all out on this one, and it was worth it - another buried treasure unearthed on a blog that keeps finding them!

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  4. Buster26 March, 2014 20:08

    Hi Joe - Thanks so much for the tip! You know just what I like. Sorry for the delayed response - was out of town.

    musmad - I much appreciate your gracious comment. These things do take a fair amount of time to put together, so I am glad some people are enjoying it!

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  5. Hit Parade28 March, 2014 18:29

    Buster,
    I also wish to thank Joe for the tip on the website because there is a lot a great music over there. I was wondering if you or other members of your bog can advise of any similar music sharing blogs. Thanks again :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. scottie03 June, 2015 00:14

    The Mega link downloaded as incomplete. Could you please re-up?

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Buster03 June, 2015 10:15

    scottie - Downloaded fine for me. Please make sure you have the complete link and note that Mega sometimes stalls momentarily.

    ReplyDelete

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