The Beauty Queen of Leenane

With its central relationship a mix of “Steptoe & Son” and Baby Jane, Martin McDonagh’s 1996 play pits 70-year-old hypochondriac Irish widow Mag against the daughter who has looked after her for the past 20 years, Maureen, as Maureen finally finds love in her lonely existence.

The script itself is something of an oddity, interspersing a relationship between mother and daughter of intense mutual dislike with dark humour and scenes of genuine romance between Maureen and neighbour Pato.  Neither Mag, played by Alice Ferguson, nor Maureen, played by Janie Lawson, is a very nice person — in fact, both have their hidden dark sides — but they are at times amusing in their devious dedication to themselves at the expense of each other.  Yet this odd mix works to keep the play moving.

This was a very tight production, well-timed, every gesture and line true to life, and as such it drew the audience right in from start to finish.  Bruce Hardie, playing Mag’s sincere love interest, Pato, and Robbie Haltiner, as Pato’s somewhat more impatient brother, Ray, matched Ferguson’s and Lawson’s own skill in occupying their respective characters, making the whole performance one to relax into up to its pointed ending.

A combination of well-directed rehearsal and excellent technical support (great props, sound design, and lighting) made accessible the visual detail in costumes and set and a sense of immediacy that are difficult to attain in larger venues.  Free-Rain’s production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane is well-acted and engaging, and the play itself is satisfying, even if the story’s revelations of how life may just hand you exactly what you deserve hit hard.

John P. Harvey

Image [L–R]: Janie Lawson and Alice Ferguson, in The Beauty Queen of Leenane.  Photographer: Janelle McMenamin.