From Broadway to Boston, ‘The Beauty Queen of Leenane’ Thrills Audiences

Martin McDonagh’s six-time Tony-nominated play “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” debuted in Boston this month and has already become a must-see show. The minimalist play takes place in a single room with only four characters, yet creates a complicated, captivating world over the course of the show. Apart from a few minor issues in miscommunication between the Irish actors and the American audience, director Garry Hynes produced an absolute masterpiece.

Walking into Emerson/Paramount Theater, which fuses art-deco and neoclassical style, is a theatrical experience in and of itself. Floor-to-ceiling 18th century paintings and gold-plated sculptures mounted atop illuminated columns encompass the audience and erase any trace of the outside world. The contrast of the filthy, cluttered stage and the opulent theater highlights Francis O’Connor’s intricate set design. In many ways, the set reflects the content of the play. Much like the main character's mind, the house is deteriorating. Its incomplete walls barely contain the play, just as Maureen can no longer maintain her sanity.

As with any stereotypical small, quaint town, Leenane holds countless secrets. The inner workings of the characters’ hearts and minds stay secret for years, but, over the course of the play, slowly reveal themselves. The play focuses on the lives of Maureen (Aisling O’Sullivan) and her aging mother, Mag (Marie Mullen). Mullen, who played Maureen in the Broadway run of the play, commands the stage from the moment the stage lights go on until the moment her own lights go out.

The show begins with Mag seated in a rocking chair, from which she can still exert her power over the other characters with ease. The dynamic between Mag and Maureen edges on being both comical and disturbing. Maureen is not only her mother’s 40-year old daughter; she is also her caretaker, sole companion, and only connection to the outside world. Both characters struggle to exert their power over one another in a manner so aggressive that their exchanges seem almost playful. However, the second half of the play reveals that they are more than simply a quarrelsome mother and daughter, and all awkward laughter fades away, leaving only fear and hatred on the stage.

Set against this pair is another family, the Dooley brothers. When Pato Dooley comes home with Maureen after a party, he becomes the sudden voice of reason for the play. His character serves somewhat as comic relief, but he primarily deconstructs the stigma against mental illness, which affects both Mag and Maureen’s lives. Ray Dooley, Pato’s younger brother, is a modern-day Hermes who brings news of the comings and goings of residents of Leenane. His presence is an infrequent reminder that a world outside of Mag’s house exists.

Together, the players create an eerily believable world in which director Hynes constantly pulls apart the concepts of morality, familial love, and sanity. O’Sullivan performs her awkward character as true to life as possible: her body language demonstrates how uncomfortable she feels in her own skin, while her words fight to overcompensate for her insecurities. Meanwhile, Mullen invokes the spirit of a classic crotchety grandmother. Crafting that familiar archetype should evoke sympathy from the audience, but instead brings forth a guilty laughter.

“The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” a play written by an Irish playwright and produced by an Irish theater company, naturally has some difficulty adapting to an American audience. For the first five minutes or so, adjusting to the thick Irish accents detracts from the critical initial moments of characterization. Throughout the play, Irish slang terms may be lost in translation for Bostonian audience members, and consequently the comedic effect gets lost in translation. Jokes about certain foods do not pertain to someone who has never tasted “horrible biscuits” like Kimberleys, Mikados, or Wagon Wheels.

Even though at moments the Irish aspects of the play eclipse its artistry, “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” addresses universally relevant topics. Although McDonagh’s play certainly takes the elderly parent-adult child relationship to the extreme, it prompts necessary reflection on how one should care for aging parents–a question that feels relevant to a millennial generation that will soon face the daunting task of caring for the aging baby boomer population. The play also engages closely with the difficult topic of mental illness in a manner intended to make the audience feel uncomfortable in the best possible way. If the goal of the theater is merely to offer an escape from reality, then “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” failed miserably. However, if the goal of theater is to hold up a mirror to our own reality and accurately reflect both the grotesque and the fantastic elements of it, then “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” masterfully achieved its objective.

“The Beauty Queen of Leenane” is at the Emerson/Paramount Theater from Feb. 8 to 26, 2017.