The beauty queen of Leenane and other plays

by Martin McDonagh

Paper Book, 1998

Status

Available

Publication

New York : Vintage Books, 1998.

Description

Martin McDonagh's plays have been produced in Galway, Dublin, London and New York. They have created excitement and have won numerous awards. In individual editions the plays have been among Methuen's most popular sellers. 'Martin McDonagh's The Leenane Trilogy, one of the great events of the contemporary Irish theatre' (Irish Times). This volume contains: The Beauty Queen of Leenane - 'McDonagh's writing is pitiless but compassionate: he casts a cold, hard, but understanding eye on relationships made of mistrust, hesitation, resentment and malevolence' (Sunday Times); A Skull in Connemara - 'Here, McDonagh's gift is at its most naked and infectious . . . it leaves you giddy with gruesome exhilaration' (Financial Times); The Lonesome West: 'The play combines manic energy and physical violence in a way that is both hilarious and viscerally exciting' (Daily Telegraph) "A star is born, bright and blazing, confident, individual and shockingly accomplished" (Sunday Times)… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member lriley

The Beauty Queen of Leenane is a hilarious black comedy about a manipulative mother (Mag) and her aging and unmarried daughter (Maureen) intent on breaking her mothers grip over her life. As Mag deliberately acts against her daughter--Maureen in turn almost always responds with physical and verbal

violence. They are tied together through the fear of the mother and frustration of the daughter and an ever mounting hatred. Having said all that McDonagh has a sharp ear for language and dialect and the mothers' seeming at times simplemindedness masks an attempt to destroy her daughters' maybe last chance to have a life of her own and contrasts sharply with the daughter's corrosive ill humor. It all ends in violence.

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LibraryThing member Stevil2003

This book contains the earliest of McDonagh's Irish-set drama, the Leenane trilogy. All three are black comedies, of course, since apparently McDonagh doesn't have another genre. (Though it's hard to begrudge him this, given how well he does it.) The Beauty Queen of Leenane is probably the most

emotionally affecting of all McDonagh's drama, with a protagonist you actually feel sorry for, even if she does (inevitably) go too far in the end. The Lonesome West, about two quarreling brothers, one of whom killed their father, and the priest trying to reconcile them to one another, is the funniest of the book, as the situation starts at bad, and the solution to it only makes it worse. Poor Father Welsh. (Walsh. Whatever.) A Skull in Connemara I didn't really react to at all; definitely the weakest McDonagh that I've read.

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LibraryThing member sarahlh

That was one of the most brilliant, disturbing things I have ever read in my entire life. I absolutely loved it and hate myself for loving it so much. Already requested another McDonagh play (or two) from the library.

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