A woman of substance - Juno and the Paycock features a forceful matriarch

In Mark O’Rowe’s version of Juno and the Paycock, the family matriarch is more forceful than ever, writes Padraic Killeen

IN RECENT years Mark O’Rowe has boldly underlined his place as one of the major players in modern Irish drama. His re-imagining of his breakthrough play Howie the Rookie was an enormous success in 2013, one swiftly followed up by a bracing new play at the Abbey, Our Few and Evil Days, the following year. Then last year there came DruidShakespeare, upon which O’Rowe collaborated with Druid Theatre Company’s Garry Hynes, providing the blueprint for a mammoth seven-hour production of Shakespeare’s history plays.

Not pausing for breath, O’Rowe will shoot his debut feature film, The Delinquent Season, later this year. In the meantime, however, there is the small matter of directing a new production of Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock at the Gate Theatre.