The Beauty Queen of Leenane

“There are plenty of other things no less dangerous that can finish you off just as easily. Maybe even more easily.” “Such as?” “Well, this stinking little town of ours, for one.”

In a remote town in Ireland’s Connemara mountains live two women: Maureen, a thin, plain spinster, and her elderly, infirm mother, Mag. Maureen’s days are filled with hatred for her mother. She cannot stand Mag’s hypochondria and manipulative behaviour, or the fact that Mag cannot make even soup or porridge, and empties her chamber pot into the kitchen sink every morning.

One day, Maureen is invited by the neighbours, brothers Pat and Ray, to a farewell party for their uncle. She decides to go and spends the night with Pat, whom she brings home. He becomes Maureen’s first boyfriend—and her ticket to leaving her manipulative mother and the small town. But Mag’s manipulation and Maureen’s troubled past complicate her search for happiness. Will Maureen manage to escape the confines of the small town and her monotonous life? Or is reality not quite what it seems?

Director Ieva Stundžytė says: “I first encountered the playwright’s work while studying at LMTA, when I saw Jonas Vaitkus’s production of The Pillowman at the Youth Theatre, and, during the Klaipėda Drama Theatre’s tour of Vilnius, Gytis Padegimas’s production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane. What stayed with me was not the productions themselves but, first and foremost, Martin McDonagh’s writing and the impressions it left: themes so sharp they are unsettling; playful, controversial dialogues that seem written with a light touch; situations that are paradoxical yet somehow deeply familiar; and black humour taken to the point of absurdity.

“Women are also very important to me—as actors, as characters, and in the broader sense. I consciously look for material for productions that is for women and, even if not necessarily about women, includes women. To my mind, descriptions such as ‘beautiful’ or ‘strong’ when applied to a woman are profoundly ambiguous. Beauty means being yourself and free from other people’s opinions; it means feeling that you matter to yourself, that you are cared for and loved by yourself. Strength means acknowledging your tiredness, anger and hurt; allowing yourself the full range of your emotions; and exposing stereotypes. In creating this production, I try to distil all of this and, taking the play as my starting point, bring it to life.”

The project is funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.