Hitchcock had an affinity for Sean O'Casey ("I had O'Casey in mind when I showed a bum in a cafe announcing the end of the world in The Birds," he told François Truffaut); for his play, Juno and the Paycock ("I liked the story, the mood, the characters, and the blend of humor and tragedy very much"); but not particularly for the filming of it ("it had nothing to do with cinema"). Hampered by the technology of the early sound era, when the camera temporarily lost the freedom to become a narrative element in and of itself, Hitchcock concentrated on the strengths of the Irish Players, led by Sara Allgood as Juno, the only realist in a family of shirkers and cynics during "the troubles" in Ireland. A possible but improbable inheritance from a distant cousin sets the gullible family to dreaming, but, as Hitchcock would ironize two years hence in Rich and Strange (perhaps picking up where O'Casey left off), sudden wealth offers "no way out."