McDonagh's "Beauty Queen of Leenane"

Welcome back! Following what we hope was a relaxing a productive winter break, Willamette University Theatre is hard at work on its third production of the season: Martin McDonagh's Beauty Queen of Leenane.

This dark, offbeat comedy takes place in a small house on a big hill in County Galway, Ireland where the Folan women live out an uneasy truce. Forty year old Maureen and her elderly but iron-willed mother Mag spend their days in endless rounds of petty insults and physical threats as each maneuvers for control of their isolated existence. But when an old family friend reappears and offers Maureen a chance at love and a new life, this once-benign terrain grows treacherous and the two women, bound by blood but driven by desperation, will do anything to survive.

The Tony Award-winning Beauty Queen of Leenane contains the brash humor, rich language and inventive storytelling for which Martin McDonagh has been widely praised and which mark him as one Britain's most promising young writers.

WU Theatre's production of Beauty Queen of Leenane provides significant challenges for the company in acting and technical areas. Senior theatre/psychology major Tara McLauchlan will take on the formidable role of Mag, an elderly and "iron-willed" woman. In addition, the rest of the cast (including junior theatre major Britt Lauer as Maureen, senior theatre major Cory Goble as Pato, and freshman theatre major Josh Rice as Ray) will be speaking in an Irish dialect. Beauty Queen of Leenane will surely provide stellar performances, directed by WU Theatre co-chair and acting professor Susan Coromel.

Technically, this production will be employing new techniques and talent. Senior theatre major Anya Ballinger will undertake the role of costume designer, with help from faculty member and resident designer Bobby Brewer-Wallin as a mentor. When asked about her experience thus far, Anya described the nerves and excitement that she experienced with her first company "show-and-tell," where she was given the opportunity to explain her research, her intended process, and show us excellent renderings of costumes. We look forward to seeing Anya's work, which will be quite the collage created from found pieces.

Set design by professor and resident scene designer Christopher L. Harris evokes a weather-beaten interior of the Folan farm. While the play is set in the late 1980's, everything in the Folan household has certainly seen better days. The use of wooden beams and an imitation flagstone concrete floor will lay a foundation for the oppressive and lonely world of the play. Technical director Rachel Kinsman Steck submitted photos of students and faculty pouring the concrete that will become the flagstone floor of the household. Because concrete takes significant time to cure, this process will provide and exciting and interesting experience to all involved.

Check back soon for more production progress reports for Beauty Queen of Leenane, which runs Thursdays-Saturdays February 19-March 7 at 7:30pm, with 2:00pm Sunday matinees.

Note:
Please be aware that Beauty Queen of Leenane contains adult language and situations and is not suitable for children.