The Beauty Queen of Leenane
Company: Sydney Theatre Company
Venue: Wharf 2, Walsh Bay, Sydney
Dates: 22 February to 13 March, 2010
Misery loves company
Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane invites audiences into the saddened world of Mag and Maureen: a mother and daughter who are both desperately trying to hang onto every last thread of their lives, resulting in a psychotic whirlwind of danger, deceit and disappointment. Brilliantly orchestrated by director Cristabel Sved, Martin McDonagh’s thought-provoking portrait will provoke audience members on so many levels.
In
true melodramatic style, The Beauty Queen of Leenane presents
four stock characters: the damsel, the hero, the messenger and of course
the villain. Mandy McElhinney plays the damsel Maureen, a temperamental
bright spark trapped in a dampened world of isolation and loneliness.
One of three sisters, Maureen has been stuck with the monotonous job of
taking care of her seventy-something mother Mag (Judi Farr), a villainous
old hag who does not have the strength to get up and make her own porridge,
but somehow has the strength to manipulate Maureen’s future happiness.
Both Mag and Maureen’s sanity, psychosis and temperaments will be
stretched to the limit as arguments after arguments escalate into a shocking
final moment that will force many jaws to drop.
Living at the top of a tiresome and muddy hill in a rural Irish village ensures a very drab and dejected lifestyle for both Maureen and Mag. The only visitor that knocks on their door is Ray Dooley (Eamon Farren); a neighbouring Irish hooligan who acts as the messenger, mediating messages between Maureen and his brother Pato. Darren Gilshenan’s character, Pato appears onstage briefly as Maureen’s love interest or more specifically her hero. On a brief trip home from England Pato and Maureen relight an old spark that threatens to separate Maureen from Mag, unless she puts a stop to it.
McElhinney gives a superior performance as a hopelessly lost soul who feels she is too young to be old and too old to be young. Her timing is perfect and her imitated Irish tongue is right on the mark. Even though the comical elements are shared equally between each character, McElhinney’s mannerisms and sexual imitations are perversely entertaining. Farr is supremely amusing as she glares out at the audience from her grubby old couch in a flawless performance as the horrendous Mag. Farr could manipulate in her sleep, it comes that naturally to her in this performance as she cunningly hides important information from Maureen and tries to persuade her that having sexual relations with a man is immoral. Darren Gilshenan taunts Mag’s theory as he openly clambers into the kitchen with no shirt on in a hilarious morning after routine that stuns Mag speechless and delights audiences. As usual Gilshenan’s performance is remarkable, but unfortunately brief as he only appears in two scenes as a merry oul Irishman that has a much firmer grasp on reality than any of the other characters. Eamon Farren amplifies the humour on stage as he comfortably stomps around as a stir-crazy teen equally feeling the monotony of living in a small town.
Housing all the frenzied and macabre madness of the night is the typically dingy 1980s Irish hovel perfectly designed by William Bobbie Stewart. The overflowing amount of bric-a-brac contained in the small kitchen come TV lounge is overwhelming right from the start, as mounted cupboards and multiple lamps arranged by lighting designer Verity Hampson pre-empt a feeling of unease and tension. Sound designer Max Lyandvert preserves the gloominess of their surroundings by adding a constant depressing patter of rain and the occasional drone of the tiresome radio.
The Beauty Queen of Leenane will not only entertain audiences with its lewd humour but also provoke feelings of desolation, loss and loneliness. The vividness of each character will absorb audiences into this feverish and morbid world and force them to side with either the crafty Mag or the impetuous Maureen.
Haylie Pretorius