He decided wrongly, and he knew it, to leave the key communication in an envelope with Maureen’s tough ma. Despite the grubbiness of the cottage’s interior, Good Teeth Theatre’s stage design contains poetry with its back-screen of images – the leaves, trees and sky – and the crisp, hurly burly of weather in Anna Clock’s sound design bring atmosphere. Something has to change and in comes Pato, brilliantly acted by Caolan Byrne, potential salvation for Maureen who is needy while he is delightfully handy and could clearly love her. In the mountains of Connemara, County Galway, Maureen Folan – a plain, lonely woman, tied to her manipulative and ageing mother, Mag – comes alive at her first and possibly last prospect of a new life.

The production transferred to Dublin's Gaiety Theatre where Linehan reprised her role opposite Derbhle Crotty. The romance between Pato and Maureen has a whiff of Tennessee Williams’s sexual yearning and dreams of escape, with some fine acting between Best and Fitzgerald. Only when Cillian Ó Gairbhí shows up as Pato, very much not the playboy of the western world, does she reveal her inner beauty queen. It transferred to London's West End, where it opened at the Royal Court Theatre on 29 February 1996. As a slice of Irish gothic, it is at its best when characters are exposing their vulnerabilities rather than fulminating with rage or enacting violence.

The Traverse Theatre is funded by Creative Scotland and The City of Edinburgh Council, and has received additional support from the Scottish Government's Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund and Creative Scotland’s Recovery Fund for Cultural Organisations. The play opened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (New York City), running from 11 January 2017 to 5 February. Maureen Folan, a 40-year-old spinster, lives in the Irish village of Leenane, Connemara, in the early 1990s with her 70-year-old mother Mag, for whom she acts as caretaker. OK, let’s examine why Martin McDonagh’s coruscating, utterly brilliant plays that address the human condition like an impossible, dangerous friend are always described as Tarantinoesque.

Left alone in the house, Maureen puts on Mag's sweater, sits in her rocking chair, and adopts her mannerisms. The 1999 production was a tour by the Royal Court Theatre Company, appearing at the Adelaide Festival Centre (May – June 1999) and Wharf 1 (July 1999) and directed by Garry Hynes. I saw this play at the Young Vic some years back but did not fully appreciate it until reading the play text just recently. She claims Mag sometimes tries to tell lies about the past, thinking Maureen is unable to discern them from reality. uk or 0131 228 1404 so we can arrange reserved seating for you and discuss how else we can best support your visit.While Maureen is out, the Folan home is visited by Ray Dooley, a young man, who invites both women to a farewell party for his visiting American uncle. Craigie’s Mag is ostensibly unassuming and quietly manipulative but lacks the bite that might otherwise set their chemistry alight. Our playgroup managed to lock into the accents marvellously because the writing has an accurate ear. Ray asks Mag to give Maureen the message, but Mag pretends she cannot remember what he has told her. Mag feeds Ray’s resentment toward Maureen, whilst also promising to deliver the letter directly to Maureen.

Rachel O’Riordan directs a major revival of this darkly comic, award-winning play by Martin McDonagh ( Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; The Lieutenant of Inishmore), starring Adam Best ( Giri/Haji), Ingrid Craigie ( Roadkill; The Cripple of Inishmaan), Orla Fitzgerald ( The Young Offenders) and Kwaku Fortune ( Line of Duty; Normal People). Elizabeth Appleby understands that 40-year-old Maureen is both openly contemptuous of her mother and fatally under her grip. With the arrival of an unexpected admirer, Maureen finally sees the possibility of escaping her dismal life.Pato emerges from the bedroom and prepares breakfast for a shocked Mag, revealing that Maureen insisted he not sneak out. However, when he urges her to dress herself for warmth, she becomes insecure about her appearance and throws a tantrum.

Eyes quick, hands crunched, mouth gurning, she plays the helpless invalid while staying fiendishly sharp.

Maureen has already learnt of the party from Ray, whom she passed on her way in, so she punishes Mag for her dishonesty by forcing her to drink lumpy Complan. The electric kettle, the packets of Complan and the absence of mobile phones allow you to put a more precise date on it, but the appeal of The Beauty Queen of Leenane lies partly in its timelessness. The play received its American premiere opening Off-Broadway on 11 February 1998, presented by the Atlantic Theatre Company at the Linda Gross Theater.