| The Beauty Queen of Leenane | |
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| Written by | Martin McDonagh |
| Characters | Mag Folan Maureen Folan Ray Dooley Pato Dooley |
| Date premiered | 1996 |
| Place premiered | Galway, Ireland |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | a plain and lonely woman in her forties with her first and possibly final chance at love; and her manipulative mother who sets about to derail it |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | Leenane, a village in Connemara, County Galway. |
| IBDB profile | |
| IOBDB profile | |
The Beauty Queen of Leenane is a 1996 drama by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh premiered by the Druid Theatre Company in Galway Ireland. It also enjoyed successful runs at London's West End, and Broadway, and off-Broadway theatres in New York.
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Plot synopsis
The play is a blend of black comedy, melodrama, horror and bleak tragedy. The story is set in an Irish village Leenane, Connemara in the early 1990s. The entire play takes place in a shabby, poorly lit kitchen, resulting in a claustrophobic sense of entrapment.
The play centers on the life of Maureen Folan, a 40-year-old spinster who takes care of her 70 year-old, selfish and manipulative mother Mag. Sisters of Maureen have escaped into marriage and family life, but Maureen, with a history of mental illness, is trapped in a seriously dysfunctional relationship with her mother.
In the course of the play, the Folan cottage is visited by Pato Dooley and his younger brother Ray. Pato is a middle-aged construction worker fed up with having to live and work in England, disappointed by the limitations and loneliness of his life. The sameness of its day-to-day is tedious also for his brother, a non-threatening "bad boy" Ray.
The glimmer of a last-chance romance between Maureen and Pato sparks up in the first act, and continues in the second one with a notable monologue of Pato. The plot, full of deceptions, secrets and betrayals interspersed with turnabouts keeps surprising the reader. Hopes are raised only to be dashed.
Original Broadway cast
- Anna Manahan as Mag Folan
- Marie Mullen as Maureen Folan
- Tom Murphy as Ray Dooley
- Brían F. O'Byrne as Pato Dooley
Awards and nominations
- Awards
- 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play
- 1998 Drama League Award for Best Play [1]
- 1998 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play [2]
- 1998 Outer Critics Circle Award Best Broadway Play [3]
- Nominations
- 1998 Drama Critics' Circle Award
- 1998 Tony Award for Best Play
References
- ^ "64th Annual Drama League Awards". http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0766825.html. Retrieved 2006-05-10.
- ^ "1998 Lucille Lortel Awards". http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0766830.html. Retrieved 2006-05-10.
- ^ "1998 Outer Critics Circle Awards". http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777528.html. Retrieved 2006-05-10.
Further reading
- McDonagh, Martin (1998). Beauty Queen of Leenane & Other Plays. New York: Vintage Books. p. 259p. ISBN 0375704876.
External links
- The Beauty Queen of Leenane at the Internet Broadway Database
- The Beauty Queen of Leenane at the Internet off-Broadway Database
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