“Women’s Fights”
Martin McDonagh (The Pillowman, The Cripple of Inishmaan), London-born and raised, but whose densely atmospheric black comedies set in Ireland make him a full-blooded Irish playwright, began his ascent about 20 years ago when Galway’s then new Druid Theatre produced The Beauty Queen of Leenane under Garry Hynes’s potent direction. Two years after its Irish premiere it made it to Broadway, where it was regaled and Hynes became the first woman director to win a Tony. (The production won four of its six nominations.)
Now it’s back in another splendidly Hynes-helmed, Druid-originated revival, for a month-long run at BAM’s Harvey Theatre before moving to other cities. The cast includes Marie Mullen, who played Maureen Folan in the original (for which she, too, won a Tony) as Mag, Maureen’s harridan of a mother. Aisling O’Sullivan is the new Maureen, inspiration for the title. As others have pointed out, the casting makes ironically palpable the notion that women often turn into their mothers.
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| Marie Mullen, Aisling O'Sullivan. Photo: Richard Termine. |
Nonetheless, the performances are so vigorously pointed and the comedic sparks so fiery that you can’t help but be drawn in as Mag, whose habits include emptying her bedpan in the kitchen sink, does little but sit in her rocker and order Maureen about with a nonstop barrage of ridicule and contempt. Mullen is marvelous at making us laugh at Mag’s willful cruelty as she digs under her daughter’s skin with a combination of vocal bullets and shifting facial expressions and bodily positions.
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| Marie Mullen, Aisling O'Sullivan, Marty Rea. Photo: Richard Termine. |
Maureen, once the victim of a nervous breakdown that sent her to the “loony bin,” is a tense livewire, carefully walking the tightrope between accepting her domestic martyrdom and blowing her blonde-haired top. O’Sullivan manages the balancing act with delicacy and strength.
Maureen, desperate for a man, eventually meets an appealing construction worker named Pato Dooley (Marty Rea, wonderful) at a dinner dance the malicious Mag tried to prevent her from knowing about. The budding relationship with Pato, who thinks of Maureen as “the beauty queen of Leenane,” alarms Mag, who fears losing Maureen’s support. After they spend a night together, Pato and Maureen hit a bump in the road, and he takes a job in England.
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| Marty Rea, Aisling O'Sullivan. Photo: Richard Termine. |
Act Two begins with the spotlighted Pato, unsure of Maureen’s feelings, writing to her to join him in America, where he’s been offered a job. He then writes to his childish brother, Ray (an amusing but occasionally over-accented Aaron Monaghan), insisting in this pre-Internet world that he hand Maureen’s letter directly to her, although he fails to insist that he not hand it to her mother.
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| Aisling O'Sullivan, Marie Mullen. Photo: Richard Termine. |
The wonderfully written and performed letter monologue is a highlight, but the contents make instantly clear where the plot will be going. Still, even more egregious tests of credibility and dramaturgic validity lie ahead, especially in the closing minutes and their foreshadowed violence. Nonetheless, McDonagh’s ripe, broguish language, his feisty characterizations, and the richly voiced, emotionally honest, and comically vibrant acting, keep you constantly engrossed.
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| Aaron Monaghan, Marie Mullen. Photo: Richard Termine. |
The Beauty Queen of Leenane may not be the masterpiece it once seemed but its beauties, especially when given a mostly definitive performance, can’t be denied.
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| Aisling O'Sullivan. Photlo: Richard Termine. |
OTHER VIEWPOINTS:
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)/Harvey Theatre
651 Fulton St., Brooklyn
Through February 5
