The Stage

The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Published Tuesday 23 February 2010 at 13:15 by Thom Dibdin

Janet Bird has stranded the cluttered and tired kitchen of the Folan’s remote Irish home high in the centre stage in her design for the Royal Lyceum’s production of Martin McDonagh’s award-winning first play. Emerging from a darkness which hints at the beauty of the surrounding Connemara hills, it hints at the darkness surrounding 40 year-old spinster, Maureen Folan and her 70-year-old mother, Mag.

These are hints which Cara Kelly’s bowed and near-defeated Maureen and Nora Connolly’s boldly defiant Mag take and work with, sowing seeds of doubt in their audience’s expectations, lulling them into false security while revelling in the baseline of comedy of McDonagh’s script.

While Dylan Kennedy plays up the comedy as the feckless, Australian soap-loving Ray Dooley, he could give stronger hints at the bad-land lad who lies underneath. A greater menace there would tip the balance even further, as Ray brings messages to the house which will ultimately unite Maureen with his brother, Pato, and give both women the potential for escape.

John Kazek, however, provides a note-perfect performance as Pato, swaggering up to Maureen and openly treating Mag with disdain, while working the emotions effortlessly in his Act II letter home.

Tony Cownie’s direction is clean and concise, giving his performers every chance to deepen their characters and nuance their actions so that what is seen conflicts with both what is known and said. The result is a production which sweeps its audience up with it, tossing their loyalties from side to side until they are left winded by McDonagh’s dark brutality. Brilliant stuff.