THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE

The Production Company
( 01/13/2012 - 02/18/2012 )
Running Time: 110 moniutes

THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE, Martin McDonagh’s three-dimensional page-turner of family struggles in rural Ireland sizzles with a breathtaking mix of witty black comedy, and psychological drama. Simply saying what the play is about, at least on the surface, is inadequate. A plain middle-aged woman, trapped in a life as a caretaker to her infirm but iron-willed mother in rural Ireland, is offered a last chance at love. But wait. If BEAUTY QUEEN is a bucolic cousin to The Heiress, it also has the more toxic elements found in Grand Guignol films like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. And Mr. McDonagh has a master's hand at building up and subverting expectations in a cat-and-mouse game with the audience. The play offers the satisfactions of a tautly drawn mystery, yet it is by no means airless. There's plenty of room for ambiguity and for the intricacy of character that actors live for.