O’Casey wrote from his own experience: he was raised in the Dublin slums, loved books but did not learn to read until the age of sixteen, by his own account could barely afford the paper his first play was written on, and made his living as a laborer even after he began writing plays. His great gift for characterization stems both from close observation and from his ability to see the real people around him in all their merriment, folly, tragedy, and heroic endurance.

The play begins in the summer of 1922, immediately after the Irish Free State compromise sparked civil war between the “Free-Staters” and the “Die-Hards” determined to fight to the death for full Irish independence. The title characters are a strong-spirited working-class woman and the self-centered dreamer she married

The couple’s daughter hopes to better herself through self-education and a good marriage; their crippled son lives in paralyzing fear of a horror he cannot name. An unexpected legacy suddenly puts this family on easy street — but that is only the beginning of a play that offers comedy and tragedy in an unpredictable mix.

O’Casey’s central issues — the cycle of violence, the status of women, the force of debt, the role of religion, love, and survival — are as compelling today as they were 82 years ago.

Ruth Anne Baumgartner of Fairfield, who teaches Modern Irish Drama at Fairfield University, will direct this production, which will open Friday, July 7.

Marguerite Foster of Seymour plays Juno; her husband Jack Boyle, the “paycock,” is Rob Pawlikowski (Roxbury). Regan Flynn (Prospect) plays their daughter, with Christopher J. Cain III and Keegan Finlayson, both of Newtown, as her two suitors; and Aaron Szlinsky (Fairfield) will make his stage debut as their son.

Boyle’s parasitic sidekick Joxer Daly is played by Doug Miller (Sandy Hook). Various friends and neighbors are played by Linda Panovich-Sachs (Bridgeport), John Pyron of Fairfield (in his 100th stage role), Pam Meister (Newtown), William Cody (Trumbull), Michael Cassidy (Middletown), and Annie Murcko (Newtown).

Alexander Kulcsar of Fairfield has created the Boyle apartment for the stage.

Juno and the Paycock will run Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 pm through July 29, with a Sunday matinée on July 23 at 2 pm.

Evening tickets are $15; tickets for the matinée are $12.

Call 270-9144 for reservations and directions. The Little Theatre is on Orchard Hill Road, just south of Sand Hill Plaza from Route 25.