Succession star heads to West End with Irish play

Succession star J Smith-Cameron is to appear in a new, centenary production of Juno and the Paycock in London's West End.

The actress is best known for playing lawyer Gerri Kellman in the acclaimed HBO series.

She will appear opposite Oscar winner and West End veteran Sir Mark Rylance in Seán O'Casey's 1924 play.

Smith-Cameron told BBC News she "couldn't be more thrilled" to be starring in the "eternally relevant play".

The show will run at the Gielgud Theatre from 21 September to 23 November.

Smith-Cameron's West End debut follows in the footsteps of her Succession co-star Sarah Snook, who recently appeared in The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Snook won an Olivier Award for her performance in the one-woman adaptation.

Succession concluded last year with its fourth season, which in January won both the Emmy and Golden Globe awards for best drama series.

Written by Irish dramatist O’Casey, Juno and the Paycock is set in the working-class tenements of Dublin during the Irish Civil War.

It follows a poor family whose fortunes suddenly change when they learn they are to inherit money from a relative who has died.

However, the prospect of wealth sparks a chain of events that challenges the family and sees them gradually unwind.

The "paycock" of the title refers to the Irish pronunciation of "peacock", which is what the hard-working wife and mother Juno accuses her husband of being.

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."

Sir Mark said it was a "joy to be playing Seán O’Casey’s masterpiece" with Smith-Cameron in its 100th anniversary year.

The actor's film credits include The BFG, Dunkirk, Don't Look Up, The Phantom of the Open and Bridge of Spies, for which he won an Oscar in 2016.

A distinguished theatre actor, Sir Mark has appeared in Jerusalem, Twelfth Night, Richard III and Dr Semmelweis.

A film adaptation of Juno and the Paycock was directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1930.

It was one of three plays O'Casey wrote in the space of three years depicting the lives of slum-dwellers.

The playwright, who grew up in the slums of Dublin himself, explored similar themes in The Shadow of a Gunman, and The Plough and the Stars.

The new stage production will be produced by Sonia Friedman Productions and directed by Warchus, whose credits include the stage and film adaptations of Matilda The Musical.

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