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Paul Boyle,
Carole Dance, Alan DeVally and Alice Selwyn (9 September - 24
October) Carole Dance, Alan DeVally, Steve
Dineen and Alice Selwyn (27 October - 28 November) |
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Coventry Belgrade Theatre, Oldham Coliseum
Theatre, Theatre Royal Winchester, Buxton Opera House, Central
Theatre Chatham, Epsom Playhouse and Gala Theatre Durham |
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"Next year is the tenth anniversary of the London Classic
Theatre company and their future will be guaranteed for many
more years if they continue to produce quality shows such as The
Beauty Queen of Leenane. This four-hander is a gem and
beautifully directed by Michael Cabot. There are so many
emotions in this powerful family drama of two Irish women, both
frustrated for different reasons. Amidst the joyous bouts of
earthy comedy, you can almost sense, in several dramatic and
pivotal moments, the affections of the audience swinging from
one character to another.
Carole Dance as Mag Folan and Alice Selwyn as Maureen Folan are
simply electrifying and their exchanges, both verbally and
visually, help to make this a memorable production. Paul Boyle,
as Pato Dooley, makes such an impact and two of his very
effective scenes, the late-night kitchen seduction and the
eventual letter home, are key moments. Alan DeVally makes an
impression in every all too brief appearance as Ray Dooley and
he thrives on several comedy opportunities.
The short scenes add much to the overall effect of this
production and the set is so realistic. The four players
certainly earn their curtain calls. It’s a play that leaves you
thinking long after the curtain comes down."
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EMMA STONE - COVENTRY TELEGRAPH
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"This dark, absorbing and, at times,
disturbing play tells the tale of Maureen Folan (Alice Selwyn),
as she buckles under the pressure of caring for her aging and
manipulative mother.
As the drama unfolds, the vindictive Mag
Folan (Carole Dance) attempts to scupper her daughter’s first
and only chance of a loving relationship, which sparks a
catastrophic chain of events.
The play, which is set in the remote
mountains of Connemara, County Galway, gains momentum as the
story develops, before racing towards a extremely surprising and
shocking climax. It’s gripping stuff as all four cast members
give powerful and convincing performances. Special mention must
go to Alan DeVally in his role as Ray Dooley who injects some
surprising humour into an otherwise dark play.
A powerful drama with an unexpected twist
performed by a talented cast. One to watch.
"This beautifully written, darkly
comic, but ultimately tragic play by Martin McDonagh is set in
rural Ireland in the mountains of Connemara, County Galway. It
is a sympathetic exploration of the tense relationship of
Maureen Folan, and Mag, her ageing mother. Maureen, a plain,
frustrated spinster, sees life and experience passing her by as
she struggles to look after a mother who is demanding, difficult
and manipulative. As Maureen reaches out in her last chance to
find freedom and happiness, the dark shades of tragedy gather.
Most of the action takes place in Maureen and Mag’s kitchen, and
the set design, sound and lighting all help to recreate an
authentic atmosphere of this traditional heart of a rural Irish
home. The cast of four are all excellent, but especially Carole
Dance as Mag, a mother fearful of being put in a home, desperate
to keep her daughter by her side waiting on her hand and foot.
And Alice Selwyn as Maureen, equally desperate to escape the
confines of her grey and drudgery-filled existence. Welcome
comic relief is provided by Alan DeVally as the naïve Ray
Dooley, while Steve Dineen gives a sensitive performance as Pato
Dooley, the man who could make Maureen’s dreams come true.
Martin McDonagh’s play powerfully evokes the closed rural
community of Ireland in the late 1980s with all its lingering
prejudices and ignorance, touching delicately on the conflicts
of patriotism and pragmatism, being shot through with the wry
humour of its inhabitants. Given Michael Cabot's finely crafted
production for London Classic Theatre, it makes a comic, macabre
and, ultimately, deeply disturbing evening. "
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SOPHIE CHARARA - WHATSONSTAGE.COM
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"Contempt - that’s how they say you can
gauge how healthy a relationship is, how long a couple might
last. Those trained in the art can detect it from a few snippets
of conversation. I wonder what they would make of Maureen Folan
(Alice Selwyn) and her mother Mag (Carole Dance) who, for the
best part of The Beauty Queen of Leenane, throw nothing but
glances of disgust and mean triumph. Martin McDonagh’s award
winning script holds no tongues; the pair sparring constantly on
every detail of their monotonous lives.
In this County Galway household, Maureen, in her mid-forties,
has been left behind by married sisters to care for her ageing
mother in a life of near seclusion. Beautifully inane exchanges
about the TV, radio and Complan abound, particularly between Mag
and the young neighbour Ray (Alan DeVally). The set comprises
the Folan’s living room with Mag’s often occupied rocking chair
allowing for a disturbingly placid yet powerful finale.
Maureen is thrown a lifeline in the shape of love interest Pato,
Ray’s elder brother (Steve Dineen filling in at the last minute
for Paul Boyle with remarkable ease, never mind ability).
Unsurprisingly, Mag does everything in her power to prevent the
match which eventually causes Maureen to reach boiling point.
Selwyn as Maureen is quite masculine as she stroppily attends to
her mother making her late night scene with Pato all the more
tender. She lets Maureen’s rage melt away in the hope that
romantic attention brings. Otherwise Selwyn’s face is
fantastically distorted into Maureen’s ugly, smug recognition
that she retains some control despite her mother’s manipulative
interfering.
Dance’s portrayal of Mag must be low key by comparison; we only
glean how hell bent she is on keeping Maureen at home from
understated changes in her manner. The cough after she burns the
party invitation or else the way Dance doesn’t take her eyes off
Pato’s letter in Ray’s hand. I’ve never heard the phrases ‘I
suppose you are ’
and ‘I suppose you do’ fill me with such frustration for one
person, dread for the other.
A mix of the melodramatic and the macabre, this production grips
you not particularly with shock at what is enfolding but a sense
of an absorbing slowly paced tragedy in amongst the
uncomfortable laughs. The heartiest audience reactions are not
only for clichés like the Irish tendency to hold long grudges
but for some of Maureen’s more obscene outpourings of hate.
As they come out for their final bow, I had forgotten there were
just four parts, and four players, in this beautifully realised
production. Over two hours bursting with emotion; equal parts
hope and despair and just the four on the stage at the end.
They weren’t exactly beaming. Selwyn and Dance must have been
exhausted. But it wasn’t difficult to detect a certain
satisfaction at doing justice to a superb play."
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PHILIP RADCLIFFE - MANCHESTER
EVENING NEWS
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"The mother-daughter relationship is a ready source of tension,
especially when the mother is a housebound manipulative old woman
and the daughter frustrated, unmarried and middle-aged. When gifted
Irish playwright Martin McDonagh exploits their acrimonious mutual
dependence in the enclosure of their downbeat Connemara cottage,
acrimony spills over into cruelty and death.
This is the play that launched McDonagh’s remarkable career just
over ten years ago and is still a gripping experience. London
Classic Theatre has also survived ten years, without subsidy or
sponsorship, and established a highly creditable reputation for
touring drama around the UK.
In reviving the this classic, Michael Cabot, LCT’s founder and
Artistic Director, revels in the darkest comedy. There are plenty of
laughs and a lot of heartbreak."
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JO WOOD - NORTH DEVON JOURNAL |
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"A good Landmark audience had a particular treat with The Beauty
Queen of Leenane. Martin McDonagh's play is at once tragic and full
of laughter.
The soft Irish brogue lulled us all, when the themes explored by
the play are vicious and cruel. Odd isn't it how one can listen to
any number of "Fecking" this and "Fecking" that without being at all
offended?
The central character is Mag Folan, a housebound woman, living
in a remote part of Connemara. All the action takes place in her one
claustrophobic room, where she is cared for by her 40-year-old
daughter Maureen. The two women, played with fine definition by
Carole Dance and Alice Selwyn, are completely dependent on one
another but full of resentment. Their small world reduced to Complan
and Kimberly biscuits while they try to score points off each other.
When neighbour Ray Dooley (Alan De Vally) is throwing a party
for his older brother Pato (Paul Boyle), and invites Maureen, she
grasps her moment and throws herself into a relationship with Pato,
which exists mostly in her head. Although he works in England he
offers to take her away and, in a beautifully delivered monologue,
composes a letter inviting her to go with him to America. However
before she can read it the letter falls into the hands of her
mother.
Maureen's frustration drives her to violence against her mother.
In a truly chilling moment she forces the older woman's hand into
hot fat on the stove. And still somehow we were all wishing that
Maureen would get the happy ending she so craved. Relentlessly,
though, the tragedy worked itself out to its horrifying conclusion.
This was hard hitting but gripping and compelling storytelling -
a harrowing but worthwhile experience. Make sure you catch London
Classic Theatre if they come this way again - you're sure of seeing
drama that will stay with you for a long time."
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PRU
FARRIER -
DURHAM TIMES
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"Oscar Wilde’s witticism that all women
become like their mothers - that’s their tragedy - hung like an
unuttered prophecy over the action of this play, but as a
terrifying truism.
At first, hearing the semi-invalid Mag repeatedly nag her
unmarried middle-aged daughter Maureen, who gives as good as she
gets, the compulsion was to sift through the verbal crossfire to
see if it hid some mutual dependency based on love.
What became clear was that they are mirror images of each other,
and as the play progressed, a dark inevitability took hold with
the realisation that mother and daughter are locked in mutual
destruction.
London Classic Theatre’s revival of the 1990s’ play that
launched the career of playwright Patrick McDonagh is
compelling and ultimately shocking, though it perpetuates the
Lady of Shallot myth that women, even vulnerable ones, must have
a man to enable escape.
Carole Dance’s plaintive notes as the manipulative Mag initially
placed all sympathy on her domestic-skivvy daughter, played by
Alice Selwyn.
The latter crackled with resentment, but was more feisty than
frumpish, too sexy for one to believe she would have stayed
overlooked to 40, even in an Irish backwater, appearing vigorous
enough to have bettered herself.
Paul Boyle, as Pato, her unlikely bald-pated knight, gave a
moving soliloquy, showing his character as warm and decent as he
voiced the words of his letter offering Maureen a route to
freedom.
Alan DeVally administered the hand of fate as the doltish Ray
who fails to fulfil his commission to deliver it.
Maureen’s savage reprisals were deeply shocking, evaporating any
lingering compassion for her and leaving one feeling Pato had
been the one lucky to escape. Nevertheless, it was a piece of
strong theatre, well-deserving of the full house."
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JONATHAN MELVILLE -
ITSONITSGONE.COM
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"Perhaps better known in film circles for
his astonishing feature debut, 2008’s comedy-thriller In Bruges,
those familiar with Irish playwright Martin McDonagh’s extensive
theatre work are well aware that he’s no one-trick pony.
Originally performed in 1996, The Beauty
Queen of Leenane opens in the kitchen of Mag (Carole Dance), a
housebound old woman whose daily routine consists of consuming
bowls of Complan, drinking tea and watching Australian soaps on
TV. Mag is looked after by daughter Maureen (Alice Selwyn) whose
life has taken a distinctly unfortunate turn as she ensures her
mother has everything she needs while looking after their rural
farm.
When local lad Pato (Paul Boyle) returns
to the village to see off some friends, he and Maureen meet,
have a one night stand and set in motion a chain of events which
will see mother and daughter finally face their feelings once
and for all.
Starting out like a darker version of
Steptoe and Son (though take away the laughter track and even
Steptoe is a tragedy) with mother trapping daughter in a kind of
purgatory with no easy escape route, Beauty Queen soon adds
layers to the story that makes it more than a comedy. Setting up
his characters and their foibles, McDonagh then starts to turn
what we know on its head as ancillary characters are introduced
to the mix and new revelations are unveiled.
The appearance of Pato is a welcome one,
his kind nature at odds with the bizarre family life he’s
wandered into after a night of passion. There’s also a superb
comic turn from Alan DeVally as dim-witted Ray, his discussion
of Kimberley biscuits, Sons & Daughters and pokers grounding the
story in some kind of reality.
With audience loyalties changing from
scene to scene and the plot refusing to stop twisting until the
final moments, this is a perfectly formed production which,
unlike Maureen’s daily tasks, never becomes a chore."
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