The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Infobox Play
name = The Beauty Queen of Leenane


image_size = 150px
caption =
writer = Martin McDonagh
characters = Mag Folan
Maureen Folan
Ray Dooley
Pato Dooley
setting = Leenane, a village in Connemara, County Galway.
premiere = 1996
place = Galway, Ireland
orig_lang = English
subject =
genre = Drama
ibdb_id = 1891
iobdb_id =

The Beauty Queen of Leenane is a 1998 drama by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh premiered by the Druid Theatre Company in Galway Ireland. and subsequent successful runs at London's West End, and Broadway, and off-Broadway theatres in New York.

Plot synopsis

The play is a blend of black comedy, melodrama, horror and bleak tragedy. The story is set in an Irish village Leenane, Connemara in 1989. The entire play takes place in a shabby, poorly lit kitchen, resulting in a claustrophobic sense of entrapment.

The play centers on the life of Maureen Folan, a 40-year-old spinster who takes care of her 70 year-old, selfish and manipulative mother Mag. Sisters of Maureen 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.

In the course of the play, the Folan cottage is visited by Pato Dooley and his younger brother Ray. 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 sameness of its day-to-day is tedious also for his brother, a non-threatening "bad boy" Ray.

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 of Pato. The plot, full of deceptions, secrets and betrayals interspersed with turnabouts keeps surprising the reader. Hopes are raised only to be dashed.

Awards and nominations

;Awards
* 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play
* 1998 Drama League Award for Best Play [cite web | url=http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0766825.html | title=64th Annual Drama League Awards | accessdate=2006-05-10]
* 1998 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play [cite web | url=http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0766830.html | title=1998 Lucille Lortel Awards | accessdate=2006-05-10]
* 1998 Outer Critics Circle Award Best Broadway Play [cite web | url=http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777528.html | title=1998 Outer Critics Circle Awards | accessdate=2006-05-10] ;Nominations
* 1998 Drama Critics' Circle Award
* 1998 Tony Award for Best Play

References

Further reading

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External links

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