The Irish Heritage Theatre’s production of playwright Martin McDonagh’s award-winning play, “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” is not to be missed.
Originally presented by the Druid Theatre Company, the play made its debut performance in 1996 at the Town Hall Theatre in Galway with McDonagh hailed as the most promising new playwright.
Set in a rural cottage in the west of Ireland, the play explores the two women’s dysfunctional relationship between the elderly manipulative mother Mag Folan, brilliantly portrayed by actress Mary Pat Walsh, and the highly acclaimed Philadelphia actress Kirsten Quinn as her bitter 40-ish spinster daughter Maureen Folan, who longs for a life of her own and deeply resents taking care of her demanding mother.
Other characters in this dark, comic drama, directed by Peggy Mecham, are Maureen’s beleaguered suitor Pato Dooley, effectively interpreted by Brian Anthony Wilson, and Rob Hargraves, who turns in a delightful performance as Ray Dooley, Pato’s younger brother.
The constant tension between Mag and her daughter Maureen is visceral and volatile. This is the dynamic that binds them.
Some of the language and expressions spring from authentic country Irish dialect—such as “oul” for old.
Maureen is frustrated by Mag on a daily basis: “You’re oul and you’re stupid and don’t know what you’re talking about. Now shut up and eat your oul porridge.”
When Mag mentions a news item about a man in Dublin who murdered an “old woman he didn’t even know,” her daughter Maureen swings back with “Sure that sounds like exactly the type of fella I would like to meet and then bring him home to meet you. If he likes murdering oul women.”
Maureen tells her mother of her dreams of seeing her in a coffin and then going off with her imaginary boyfriend to a bar for a drink — to which Mag replies, “Seventy you’ll be at my wake and then how many men’ll there be round your waist with their aftershave?”
When Mag threatens to tell Maureen’s suitor Pato a dark secret, Maureen replies, “Do you think Pato listens to the smutterings of a senile oul hen?”
There are many twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat, guessing about what happens next. The back-and-forth bantering is enough to keep you engrossed until the drama’s shocking climax – satisfying in every way.
To purchase tickets to the performance, now at Plays and Players Theatre, 17th and Delancey Place, visit Irish Heritage Theatre.org. The play runs through Sunday, March 23. Matinee performances are on Sunday, March 16, and Sunday, March 23.
