Beth Wilmurt (Maureen Folan) and Rod Gnapp (Pato Dooley) in Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane, directed by Mark Jackson, at Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley, now through June 16.
The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh is set in the Irish countryside where a woman in her forties tries to gain control of her life and destiny from her mother. This play is a blend of black comedy, melodrama, horror and tragedy. The story is set in the Irish village of Leenane, Connemara, in the early 1990’s. It takes place in a shabby, poorly lit kitchen and living room resulting in a claustrophobic sense of entrapment.
The play centers on the life of Maureen Folan (Beth Wilmurt), a forty year old virgin who takes care of her selfish and manipulative seventy year old mother Mag (Joy Carlin). Maureen’s sisters have escaped into marriage and family life, but Maureen, with a history of mental illness, is trapped in a seriously dysfunctional relationship with her mother.
The Folan cottage is visited by Pato Dooley (Rod Gnapp) and his younger brother Ray (Joseph Salazar). Pato is a middle aged construction worker fed up with having to live and work in England, disappointed by the limitations and loneliness of his life.
The glimmer of a last chance romance between Maureen and Pato sparks up in the first act and continues in the second one with a notable monologue by Pato. The plot, full of deceptions, secrets and betrayals keeps surprising the audience. Hopes are raised only to be dashed.
In this play, much credit must also go to a flawless cast in Mark Jackson’s finely tuned production. Beth Wilmurt is compelling as Maureen. We are no less delighted to be in the company of Joy Carlin’s manipulative Mag. Rod Gnapp’s Pato is the most sympathetic of the four characters. His younger brother Ray is too impatient to wait to put Pato’s romantic letter into Maureen’s hands.
Martin McDonagh is an interesting and good storyteller. This production owes much to Mark Jackson’s fine direction, York Kennedy’s perfectly targeted lighting and Nina Ball’s wonderfully grungy set—and worth repeating—a superb cast!
The Beauty Queen of Leenane plays at Marin Theatre Company, May 23-June 16,2 013. Marin Theatre Company is located at 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley. Performances are held Tuesday & Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m.; Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. with matinees every Sunday at 2 p.m.; Saturday, June 15 at 2 p.m. and Thursday, June 6 at 1 p.m. For tickets, call the box office at 415-388-5208 or go online at marintheatre.org.
Coming up next at Marin Theatre Company will be Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire and directed by Tracy Young, August 22-September 15, 2013.
Flora Lynn Isaacson
