The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Beauty Queen of Leenane, The

    Author: Martin McDonagh

    First Performance: 1996, Galway

    Published: 1996

    Genre: Trag. in 9 scenes

    Setting: Living room/kitchen of rural cottage, west of Ireland, and bedsit in England, 1990s

    Cast: 2m, 2f

Maureen Folan, a spinster in her forties, reluctantly cares for her chattering mother Mag, a widow in her seventies. At a neighbour's leaving party Maureen dances with Pato Dooley. Calling her ‘the beauty queen of Leenane’, Pato stays the night with her. Mag is horrified, especially when Maureen talks shamelessly of her night of passion (in fact, she has remained a virgin). Mag tries to drive Pato away by revealing Maureen had spent a month in a mental institution. Pato returns to England but writes to Maureen, asking her to come with him to America, where his uncle has offered...

[The entire page is 379 words long]

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