Review: The Beauty Queen of Leenane will haunt you long after you leave the LyricTheatre

Award-winning writer / director Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane is definitely one play that stays with you, casting up aspects of its dark humour when you least expect them.

Prime Cut’s co-production with the Lyric Theatre is currently leaving Belfast audiences spellbound with its black comedy and tension-filled dialogue between characters teetering on the very edge of violence.

Winner of four Tony Awards on Broadway and nominated for an Olivier Award, the play is set in the remote Connemara cottage of frustrated spinster Maureen (Nicky Harley) and her demanding mother Mag (Ger Ryan).

It explores the tense relationship between the two women as they go about their daily life together, as they have seemingly done since time began. They may live virtually on top of one another in their isolated home but each are pitifully lonely in their own right.

Maureen doesn’t hold back in voicing her resentment at having attended to her mother’s every needs for a lifetime. Mag’s non-stop demands for Complan ‘with no lumps’, tea, the right sort of biscuits and other humdrum matters jab at Maureen constantly and the two women conduct an endless verbal sparring that is both comical and bitterly painful.

It’s hard to see how Maureen could ever escape this existence to lead her own life and fulfil her dreams. The brutal dialogue, interspersed with injections of rich Irish humour, allows the audience to share Maureen’s burden while also having sympathy for her elderly mother.

When Pato (Caolan Byrne) comes along, a flame of a brighter future for Maureen is ignited along with their passion for each other. He gives her the title ‘the beauty queen of Leenane’ and while she’s flattered, she realises the needs of her demanding mother will always chain her down unless something drastic happens.

As the relationship between mother and daugher becomes ever more savage, the audience is allowed a glimpse into Pato’s intentions. Standing to the right of the stage under a spotlight, he reads the poignant love letter he has penned to Maureen, asking her to join him in a new life in Boston.

Pato’s big mistake is to entrust his younger brother Ray (Marty Breen) with delivery of the letter into Maureen’s hand. Intercepted by Mag, the note is cast into the fire and never seen by its intended recipient.

With resentment and secrets spilling out at every turn, the bleakness of the warped mother-daughter relationship grows in intensity to a final, shocking conclusion.

With magnificent performances from all four cast members in an hauntingly atmospheric setting, this is one play you really don’t want to miss.

The Beauty Queen of Leenane, written by Martin McDonagh and directed by Emma Jordan, runs at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast until Saturday, July 1. For ticket details go to https://lyrictheatre.co.uk/