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Embittered, unsympathetic and endlessly abusive towards her 70-year-old self-pitying mother, Maureen's hatred is so darkly hilarious it immediately makes us side with her. But, beyond her despotic parent's petulance and neediness, what dark events may justify such depths of acrimony?
Colette Dockery's superbly directed production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane is dark, funny and incredibly moving. Smells bring to life Phil Ley's punctiliously accurate reproduction of the crumpled up Irish cottage perched up on the top of a steep hill in County Galway. It's a blend of burned wood, urine and foul Complan, underlying the claustrophobic fate of a fiery 40-year-old destined to nurse her despondent relative whilst her luckier siblings have married and left home.
Julia Flatley as Maureen exudes good health, life and sexiness with all the nuances of threat and the allure of a caged lioness. When prince charming Pato, played by the truly irresistible Nick Cannon with a colourful palette of puppy-like smiles, good boy coyness and raunchy boldness, finally knocks on her door, we can't but root for their love story to flourish against all odds.
Fate, personified by Pato's impatient young brother Ray, is more concerned with the excitement of 1989's clubbing and fighting than with playing the 'love messenger'. Simon Brooke pulls off some of the funniest reactions in the play and succeeds in bringing the energy of an entirely different generation into the anachronistic cottage. But it is the absolute determination of Amanda Waggot's unflinching old mother, Mag, to tame the lioness daughter for her own survival that keeps the drama alive. Through her calculated reactions to Maureen's passionate outbursts, we get a real sense of her steady display of power as well as her striving to protect her vulnerable animal self. And from the beginning we see this duality reflected in her daughter, foreshadowing the inevitable nemesis which makes McDonagh's play a timeless family tragedy.
The moody atmosphere created by lighting designer Alan Wilkinson and the historical context of Laurence Tuerk's accurate sound design tune in perfectly with every element of the production, making The Beauty Queen of Leenane one of Tower Theatre's best productions yet. It was definitely one not to be missed.
Photography by Robert Piwko
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