The award-winning actor Peter Coonan is about to tread the boards in Sean O’Casey’s ‘Juno and the Paycock’ at the Gate Theatre. Ahead of its opening on Februray 16 he joined Anton for a chat which was meant to be about the play, but somehow ended up as a challenge for someone to do a poc fada of a sliotar from the top of the GPO to the top of the Gate Theatre. Expect something different indeed...
Best known for playing ‘Fran’ in Love/Hate (he tells us there will be no more Love/Hate on TV) Peter is no stranger to the stage or indeed the Gate. Last year he starred in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge at the venue. As he tells Anton, ‘Juno’ was one of his dream plays to star in and what makes it all the more poignant for him is that it the third play he starred in that his late mother Betty starred in! She also had roles in staging of ‘Juno & The Paycock’, ‘A View From The Bridge’ and ‘Philadelphia Here I Come’.
‘Juno and the Paycock’ is set in the working class tenements of Dublin in the early 1920’s during the Civil War. It revolves around ‘Captain’ Jack Boyle and his friend Joxer Daly, two Dublin tenement dwellers who put effort into avoiding work.
Jack's wife Juno is the breadwinner and moral powerhouse, but she can't stop her life unravelling.
Show previews are at the Gate Theatre from Thursday 11th of February with the opening night being Tuesday 16th of February.
The Gate version is directed by Mark O’Rowe and also stars Declan Conlon, Marty Rea, Ingrid Craigie, Derbhle Crotty, Emmet Kirwan, Bríd Ní Neachtain, Caoimhe O’Malley, Karl O'Neill, Terry O'Neill, Mark O’Regan, Karl Shiels, Jimmy Smallhorne, Fionna Hewitt-Twamley and Fionn Walton.
Tickets can be booked online or people can call (01) 874 2024
Also keep an eye out for Peter in 'Wrecking the Rising' on TG4 this Spring.
