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.” “Like what?” “Well, for instance, this stinking little town of ours.”

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 she cannot cook even soup or porridge, or that every morning she empties her chamber pot into the kitchen sink.

One day, the neighbours, brothers Pat and Ray, invite Maureen to a farewell party for their uncle. Maureen 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 behind. But Mag’s manipulative ways and Maureen’s complicated past make her search for happiness more difficult. 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 in Vilnius, Gytys Padegimas’s production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane. What stayed with me was not the productions themselves, but above all Martin McDonagh’s writing and the impressions it left: themes so sharp they make you uneasy, playful and controversial dialogue that seems written with a light touch, paradoxical situations that are nevertheless deeply recognisable, and black humour taken to the point of absurdity.

“Women are also very important to me—in the broadest sense, as actresses and as characters. I deliberately seek material for productions that is for women and, though 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, being free from other people’s opinions, and feeling that you matter to yourself, that you care for and love yourself. Strength means acknowledging your exhaustion, anger and hurt; making room for your full range of emotions; and exposing stereotypes. In creating this production, I am trying 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.