SOURCE: A review of Two Plays: Juno and the Paycock [and] The Shadow of a Gunman, in The New York Times Book Review, March 8, 1925, p. 5.

In the following review of Juno and the Paycock and The Shadow of a Gunman, the critic hails O'Casey as an impressive talent whose early work "deserves serious consideration."

The chaotic Dublin of 1920 and 1922 furnishes Sean O'Casey the material for his two vivid dramas, Juno and the Paycock and The Shadow of a Gunman, in Two Plays. These efforts, ruthless enough in their depiction of a reality that was a matter of blood and murder, move with surprising speed and comprehension of dramatic value, and yet, at the same time, they are lighted by a broad humor that is laughable enough on the surface but which, taken with the subject involved, reveals sardonic undercurrents. Mr. O'Casey is frankly melodramatic when its suits his...