THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE. To 19 February.
Bolton
THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE
by Martin McDonagh
Octagon Theatre To 19 February 2005
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 February
Another strong production, completing Bolton's account of McDonagh's Leenane Trilogy.Hands up the theatres that haven't produced this play, a soon-established modern classic. Cosy-seeming cottages in rural island (their bleak West Coast remoteness easily ignored in centrally-heated mainland theatres) make for an attractive setting. But Beauty Queen also established McDonagh's way of subverting the expectations his post-Playboy locations set up among anyone not knowing their Leenane from their Mayo.
Violence erupts in all his plays. Paul Hunter's production builds steadily towards these moments, absorbing them within the lives of quiet desperation the play shows. Eileen O' Brien's mother cunningly ferrets out opportunities to contrive her own way, a lifetime's craftiness shown in the way she needles young Ray to leave her alone with the letter his brother's sent her daughter. It's easy to see how life with just this old woman and the chickens must be maddening for middle-aging Maureen.
Then there's Mag's crafty self-control as she waits till sure Ray's gone before opening and intercepting the letter that might deprive her of her daughter. What we learn about that daughter's past and her behaviour towards her mother only makes more desperate the clinging to her.
Maggie O'Brien (no relation) catches the volatility in Maureen and the sense of longing for a wider life. Her chance comes with the return of Ray's brother Pato (his modesty and gentle nature within a strong and slightly awkward exterior made clear in Ged Simmond's performance). That chance is lost because of her mother. The performance captures Maureen's defeated daily grind (always out with the chickens when Ray brings good news) and her joy at the night in the cottage with Pato doubly sweet for her triumph over her mother, but recalled for its own sake as Maureen's one happy time.
When she discovers the larger defeat inflicted by Mag her whole past tumbles into place in her quietly determined response. Its violence is contrasted by her final, silent retreat. If Fiona Watts' set doesn't place doors to help make this last point that Maureen's now bound to follow her mother's life in other respects it enhances the play's action in this well-wrought production.
Ray: Paul Dinnen
Mag: Eileen O'Brien
Maureen: Maggie O'Brien
Pato: Ged Simmond
Announcer: Peter Hamilton Dyer
Director: Paul Hunter
Designer: Fiona Watt
Lighting: Tom Weir
Sound: Andy Smith
Voice/Dialect coach: Mark Langley
2005-03-03 13:15:01