No excuses can hide the criminal actions of a Nazi fellow-traveller in this admirably objective documentary, suggests MARTIN HALL
A shout from without
LYNNE WALSH regrets that unity is denied to a fine cast let down by the baffling spectacle of a poor lead performance

Juno and the Paycock
Gielgud Theatre, London
CAN you hear that spinning sound, ma chara? That’ll be the genius playwright Sean O’Casey rolling in his imagined grave.
The cause lies in this latest iteration of his trailblazing work, first performed a century ago.
It should be said that there are some four and five-star performances in this production. Unfortunately, its biggest name, the much-lauded Mark Rylance does not deliver one. Instead, his is a baffling spectacle, a mumbling, eye-rolling extravaganza, manifesting the alcoholic bully “Captain” Jack Boyle as a rather exhausting caricature.
Similar stories

MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production that panders – if inadvertently – to Western prejudice against China

RON JACOBS recommends a painstaking study of the communists and revolutionaries who congregated in Moscow after 1917

On the 60th anniversary of the playwright’s death JENNY FARRELL draws attention to the potential for revolution portrayed in his little known late work

The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE salutes a frenetic and funny political comedy drama whose battleground is Belfast and where the weapons are words