SEASON 20 | JUNE 2008

The Beauty Queen Of Leenane

By Martin McDonagh
Directed by Frank Benge
Presented by Renaissance Austin & VORTEX

Ever wondered what goes on inside those idyllic rural Irish cottages?
40 year-old spinster Maureen Folan is severely tried by her grumpy old mother Mag's constant demands for attention, food, and cups of tea. Then one day, local hooligan Ray Dooley, arrives with an invitation to one of the neighbor's parties, and the family bonds which unite the two women in their life of monotony and mutual hatred are forever shattered…

CAST

Jennie Underwood, Lorella Loftus, Marc Balester, and Mason Stewart.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Directed by Frank Benge. Lighting design by Amy Lewis, set design by Paul Davis, costume design and dramaturg by Maria Beach, Karen Jambon, Shekhar Govind and Elaine Jacobs.

AWARDS

B. Iden Payne Award for Cast performance

about the playwright

Irish playwriting phenomenon Martin McDonagh shot to world recognition with his Leenane trilogy and is the only writer since Shakespeare to have had four plays performed concurrently in London. Two of his plays have also run concurrently on Broadway. The Beauty Queen of Leenane has won a slew of awards including four Tonys. McDonagh's latest artistic endeavors include the recently released film In Bruges. As a young man, McDonagh absorbed the rhythms of speech and way of life of his Gaelic-speaking-father, his extended Irish family, the London neighborhood where he lived, and the TV soaps and movies that he loved. The result is his anarchic and darkly comic writing.

Special presentation by dramaturg, Dr. Maria Beach, in café after show, Friday, June 13, 2008. This show is co-produced by VORTEX Repertory Company and Renaissance Theatre.

Renaissance Austin is funded in part by VORTEX Repertory Company, the City of Austin under the auspices of the Austin Arts Commission, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.