Word: kavanagh
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Juno and the Paycock (Angel, 2 LPs). With a foreword by Playwright Sean O'Casey, one of the century's great tragicomedies boils up again from the Dublin slums. Siobhan McKenna, as Juno, has in her voice all the ache and sorrow of Cathleen Ni Houlihan; Seamus Kavanagh makes his Captain a lovable buffoon for most of three acts and - at the right moment - turns him into a villain; Cyril Cusack whines and wheedles his way magnificently into the role of Joxer Daly...
Such beliefs lead him to take an indulgent view of Kavanagh, a lusty fishmonger who has murdered a servant girl in a swirl of passion. They also lead Ezra to seduce Romilly, the sister of his friend Father Mellowes, simply because he wants to "wipe some of that look of innocence off her face." In long conversations, Ezra and Father Mellowes conclude that the greatest human sin is indifference and that Christ "liked anyone who let themselves be carried away...
Having reduced Christianity to nothing more than enthusiasm, they readily accept Kavanagh as their companion and approve of Romilly's decision to marry him so that the murderer's last days in prison will be a bit less lonely...
Redemption is marred by the Dostoevskian notion that a true spiritual rebirth can come only after a great sin; consequently, its characters hazily confuse forgiveness of Kavanagh's crime with left-handed apologies for it. When a policeman speaks with horror of Kavanagh's "cold knife," Father Mellowes blandly replies that the knife "was not so cold as your justice"-which seems to suggest that, for Stuart, morality can be measured with a thermometer. Like his character, Ezra, Stuart wants brotherhood but in a typically Irish mood has no good word for humility. If men can find grace...
Edward C. Kavanagh...