The dark side of a Beauty Queen
Bethany Scholl
Issue date: 11/17/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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On Nov. 21, the stage at the Sullivan Malhoney Courthouse Theater in St. Catharines will play host to the Lyndesfarne Theater Project. This group of talented actors is joining forces to bring to life Martin McDonagh's critically acclaimed play, The Beauty Queen of Leenane.
Written in only eight days, this play brought 25-year-old McDonagh international success, where he is especially praised for his unique ability to create characters that are both strange and fascinatingly real.
In The Beauty Queen of Leenane, McDonagh uses dark humor as a clever tool in which to draw the audience deeper and deeper into the cruel and twisted relationship between Mag and Maureen Falon, the two main characters which the play revolves around.
At 40 years of age, Maureen is the last child to be living in her mother's house. Suffering from a mental disorder, it seems that the only prospect for her is to care for her manipulative, elderly mother. When Maureen meets up with her childhood friend Pato - a lonely construction worker who has returned from England - there seems to be a glimpse of hope that things might change for Maureen in the future.
Graeme Somerville, who plays the part of Pato, said that Maureen and Pato "sort of spark and court and end up here; that's where the play begins".
What follows is an intensely dark and toxic look at the disintegration of an already shattered mother-daughter relationship. Kelly Daniels, who plays the part of Maureen, was originally drawn to this play because of its dark humour. She was working in Winnipeg at the time and only had the chance to see the first act of the play. Years later, she finally read it.
"I finally got to see the second act and it just blew me away. Oh my god, it was just so shocking," said Daniels. "The things that the mother and daughter do to each other are awful, it's just awful."
Somerville agrees that what makes this play so different is the gruesome moments that go seamlessly hand in hand with the love story.
"The piece itself is tight, it's dark, there are certainly moments when you're reading through it and it makes you reel a bit. It gets pretty gruesome at points," he said.
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