The Beauty Queen of Leenane

 For anyone who’s sick of the stereotype of the Irish as fun-lovin’ roustabouts with peppy music and lilting accents, The Beauty Queen of Leenane should provide the perfect antidote. 

 Sydney Theatre Copmany (STC Ed)Wharf 2 Theatre
Monday, 22 February, 2010
For anyone who’s sick of the stereotype of the Irish as fun-lovin’ roustabouts with peppy music and lilting accents, The Beauty Queen of Leenane should provide the perfect antidote. Playwright Martin McDonagh has invented his own genre – Irish Squalor Gothic – and provides a piece of theatre that is by turns amusing, poignant and horrific.
40 year-old spinster Maureen (Mandy McElhinney) lives with her selfish and spiteful mother Mag (Judy Farr). The pair is trapped in a relationship that is simultaneously symbiotic and parasitic; they are constantly trying to tear strips off each other, but there’s a sense that any attempt to find an identity outside that of Helpless Mother-Martyr Daughter would be their undoing. Enter potential knight in shining armour Pato (Darren Gilshenan), a construction worker who could be Maureen’s ticket to a better life…unless his gormless brother Ray (Eamon Farren) stuffs things up.
McDonagh’s views of society, with the breakdown of family structures and the replacement of traditional culture with quality Australian TV shows like The Sullivans, are a little bleak. But that doesn’t stop him from writing a play that is witty, scary, and leaves the audience gasping with surprise at various revelations. There are a couple of scenes where you just know that someone is going to succumb to their personal weakness, but McDonagh manages to string you along anyway, until the will-he won’t-he tension becomes almost unbearable.
The cast is excellent. As Mag, Farr positively leeches evil out of every pore – the sort of banal evil that makes you want to destroy someone’s last chance at happiness just so you can avoid having lumps in your Complan. As she fiddles and mutters and plots and shuffles around the cramped kitchen (wonderfully designed, constructed to look like an unnatural growth emerging from a peat bog), she evokes the image of a wicked witch. Yet she still manages to evoke a feeling of pity when certain foreshadowings come to fruition.
McElhinney is a perfect foil for Farr. There’s a certain chemistry between the two of them as they bitch and snarl at one another, with McElhinney’s slightly wild-eyed performance giving a hint of hidden dangers yet to be revealed. Gilshenan’s performance as Pato is perfect and touching, while Farren, as his younger brother, manages to give some depth to a character that is largely played for laughs. There’s an undercurrent of unfulfilled potential in Ray – he could be a very, very dangerous bad boy…if he wasn’t such a feckin’ loser.
This is a great production (kudos to director Cristabel Sved), and a good introduction for this year’s STC Ed program. It’s clever, entertaining, involving and often very difficult to watch, which is all you can ask for a night at the theatre.
Bookings: (02) 9250 1777
Until 13 March, 2010