← All events
theatre · Saturday 17 October 2026 · 8:00pm 
Juno and the Paycock - Athlone Little Theatre
At Athlone Little Theatre · St Mary's Place, Athlone, Co. Westmeath
At Athlone Little Theatre · St Mary's Place, Athlone, Co. Westmeath
Athlone Little Theatre closes its 2026 season with Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock, directed by Paddy Martin, running from Saturday, 17 to Saturday, 24 October 2026. Set in a Dublin tenement during the Irish Civil War, O’Casey’s tragicomedy follows the Boyle family as a rumoured inheritance turns their lives upside down, and it remains one of the most performed plays in the Irish repertoire nearly a century after it was first staged at the Abbey Theatre.
Juno and the Paycock is built around Captain Jack Boyle, the self-styled “Paycock” of the title, a workshy braggart, and his long-suffering wife Juno, who holds the family together as their fortunes rise on false promises and then collapse. O’Casey wrote the play in 1924, and it mixes broad comedy in the Boyle household with the harder edges of poverty, unemployment and political violence in the background of the Civil War. Athlone Little Theatre, founded in the 1930s and one of the longest-running amateur companies in the midlands, has staged O’Casey’s work before as part of its commitment to Irish classics alongside newer plays. This production follows the company’s April 2026 staging of Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author.
Athlone Little Theatre is on St Mary’s Place in Athlone town centre. Athlone railway station, on the Dublin to Galway Irish Rail line, is within easy walking distance, and the theatre is close to the town’s central bus stops and main car parks.
Athlone’s streets around the castle and the Shannon are worth exploring before or after the show, with plenty of bars and restaurants nearby. There is more to see and do in Athlone and across Co. Westmeath.
Heading to Athlone Little Theatre in Athlone? Westmeath has plenty more to see. Read the Athlone area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.