This review originally appeared in the MetroWest Daily News on Thursday, September 22, 2005.

A harrowing 'Beauty Queen'

By David Brooks Andrews / Daily News Correspondent

Few plays pack as much wallop as "The Beauty Queen of Leenane."

No doubt that's why it's become a popular choice among more adventuresome community theaters. Waltham's Hovey Players is the latest to take it on in this area.

But whether "Beauty Queen" offers the kind of wallop that you'll want to experience or that will enlighten you may be another question.

It is Martin McDonagh's first play, premiering in Dublin in 1996 and later winning four Tony awards on Broadway. He has gone on to include equally strong doses of hatred and violence in his later plays.

At the heart of "Beauty Queen" is an ugly and cruel relationship between the elderly Mag Folan and her 40-year-old daughter Maureen.

As soon as the Hovey Player's production opens with the two women picking and carping at each other, you know that you're in for a dark evening that can only get darker. And it does. Much darker. But there are a few scenes that offer the relief of normalcy, more or less. And even one of transcendent love.

Mag and Maureen are like two prize fighters who clutch each other and can't stop swinging.

Mag refuses to do anything for herself, even though she's ambulatory. She won't even make a cup of tea. Maureen retaliates by forcing her mother to eat lumpy porridge and the kind of biscuits (cookies) that she hates. All of this takes place in a simple kitchen/living area in a modest house in Leenane, a small village in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland.

It soon becomes apparent that Mag is afraid that Maureen will leave her, and she'll have nobody to take care of her. And Maureen is afraid that she'll never be able to have a life of her own or a husband. Clearly, these are universal fears that have plagued the elderly and young in Ireland, especially before the country began to experience its recent prosperity. It's material that's ripe for a thought-provoking play.

But the cruel things that Mag and Maureen do to each other become so unspeakably gross and shocking that one can't help but feel that the extremity of the ugliness and violence is gratuitous, and that McDonagh is pushing the envelope to enhance his reputation at the risk of desensitizing audiences.

When Pato Dooley returns home from England and spends the night with Maureen, there's a glimmer of hope for her. It's a poignant scene.

But the most moving scene of the evening takes place later when Pato reads aloud the letter he's writing to Maureen from England. He expresses great tenderness and love in spite of her situation and hints of oddness. David Wood as Pato brings such honest naturalness and subtlety to the scene that it's the most compelling acting during the whole evening.

Director Michael Tonner has staged the scene beautifully. Wood reads the letter from a table at the lip of the stage, while Pato's younger brother, Ray, and Mag are behind him, lit only by the blue glow of the TV set they're watching. Ray holds the letter in his hands while waiting for Maureen to return home so he can give it directly to her. Mag clearly is desperate to get a hold of it.

As the scene unfolds, we find ourselves glued to the letter as it passes through their hands, while Ray is only half aware of Mag's interest in it.

Mikki Lipsey creates an extraordinarily believable Mag, with all of her ugly intransigence. But it's a static role, without Mag yielding or changing, and so Lipsey isn't able to show us her full range. Mary O'Donnell as Maureen gives a strong performance, bouncing between toughness and a desperate hunger for love.

It doesn't feel as if Ted Batch in the role of Ray Dooley has quite figured out who Ray is. So it seems more like a performance than an inevitable character.

At times, all of the actors try a little too hard to show us and the other characters what they feel, instead of letting us figure it out for ourselves. This is such an obvious play with such strong foreshadowing of events that it would help to have the actors work against the grain more or try to disguise the obvious by occasionally throwing away lines.

The actors have acquired such a natural Irish accent, thanks to dialect coach Mark Usher, that it's convincing and doesn't interfere with their emotional lives on stage.

Tonner's set is so realistic, with terrific attention to detail, that you'll feel you're in the women's rural home. And John MacKenzie's lighting is wonderfully evocative.

What one takes away from the play is how blinding hatred can be, so much so that it prevents people from recognizing moments of grace and opportunities to escape. But McDonagh could have used less of a sledgehammer in driving home that lesson.

"Beauty Queen of Leenane" runs through October 1 at the Abbott Theatre, Joel's Way, 9 Spring Street, Waltham. Tickets cost $15, $13 for students and seniors, and can be reserved by calling 781-893-9171.

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