| ARCHIVE SEASON 20 | June 2008 |
The Beauty Queen Of Leenane
by Martin McDonagh
Directed by Frank Benge | Presented by Renaissance Austin and VORTEX
Winner of B. Iden Payne Award for Cast performance: Jennifer Underwood, Lorella Loftus, Marc Balester, and Mason Stewart.
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…
Featuring: Jennie Underwood as MAG FOLAN Lorella Loftus as MAUREEN FOLAN, Marc Balester as PATO DOOLEY, and Mason Stewart as RAY DOOLEY.
Directed by Frank Benge, multi-talented and long-standing Austin actor, director and designer. Frank hasbeen recognized for his outstanding work in The Man Who Came To Dinner, An Ideal Husband, and Pericles, Prince of Tyre. He was last seen on stage in April in Prisoner of Second Avenue. This is his second collaboration with Renaissance.
Artistic team: lighting design by Amy Lewis, set design by Paul Davis, costume design and dramaturg by Maria Beach, Karen Jambon, Shekhar Govind and Elaine Jacobs.
"… you may find images from ''Beauty Queen'' creeping unbidden into your imagination long after you've seen it …" - New York Times
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.
