Review of The Beauty Queen Of Leenane at The Playhouse Theatre, Northampton

While Martin McDonagh is now making quite a name for himself as a screenwriter, director and producer of hit films like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, he started off a writer for the stage, like this play The Beauty Queen of Leenane, the first of a trilogy set in County Galway. And while McDonagh himself has said he has "respect for the whole history of films and a slight disrespect for theatre", it doesn't stop him writing pretty impressive plays like this one.

Having previously seen McDonagh's The Pillowman at The Playhouse, and an excellent version of Hangmen via NT Live, I was well aware of McDonagh's dark humour. Beauty Queen maintains that edge, with its tale of spinster Maureen, and her relationship with her oppressive and demanding mother Mag, ill, but still outwardly manipulative of events. It's dark, not quite as dark as The Pillowman perhaps, but like that play, features one truly disturbing torture scene, so, it's not for the faint-hearted. That's not to say it isn't funny, that is McDonagh's trademark, making you laugh while being pretty sure deep down you probably shouldn't be.

While there are also two male characters in this play, and they do drive events from afar, this is primarily about the two women of the piece, especially at first Mag. She is played incredibly well, by an unrecognisable Kimberly Vaughen, looking and embodying the frail creature Mag has become. Stooped, staggering, but with enough energy and glint of the eye, to still get about controlling, and trying to stop the relationships that her daughter attempts to have. It's an incredible performance, one of the best upon the Playhouse stage in recent times.

Her daughter Maureen performed by Kate Billingham wields just the right amount of desperation in the role, allowing the character enough room to develop into what she becomes as the story unfolds. It's a rightfully scary performance at times, but at its core, desperately sad.

The male characters, for the most part, offer the comic relief, and the larger than life characters. Richard Jordan as Pato Dooley is a likeable chap, and his offstage emotional reading of his letter is a particular highlight. Finally, Jof Davies' Ray Dooley is something else altogether, a livewire of a character, animated, fast-talking, willing to help, but no further than he can stand. It completes a quartet of brilliant performances, all brimming with strong and mostly maintained, Irish accents.

Liz Clark directs well, despite never being crowded of people, and it looks an absolute delight on Rod Arkle brilliant set, complete with appliances and even the very real, kitchen sink.

In fact, the whole thing combines into a great piece of theatre, which, yes, you can laugh at, despite often feeling you shouldn't be. It's challenging at times, and some of the themes will unquestionably touch a few nerves of some people watching. However, while one scene, can be truly uncomfortable, and the story doesn't end well, you can't help but admire the whole play and production as you leave, challenged and thinking, the theatre.

Performance reviewed: Saturday 16th March 2019 at the Playhouse Theatre, Northampton

The Beauty Queen Of Leenane ran until Saturday 16th March 2019 at The Playhouse Theatre, Northampton but have further dates on its tour. For details visit: whitecobraproductions.co.uk

For full details about the Playhouse Theatre visit their website at playhousenorthampton.com

Photos: Tom Jordan

Review of Here & Now at Milton Keynes Theatre

During the late 90s and early 2000s, the dance-pop group Steps was a mighty presence in the British charts. They accumulated two number-one albums in the UK and 14 consecutive UK top-5 singles, including two number ones. They were juggernauts of lightweight pop. It is perhaps a surprise that it took until 2024 for a musical to be based on their hits. Now, writer Shaun Kitchener brings enough campness to keep Alan Carr and Julian Clary in work for decades. Here & Now , the show everyone was waiting for, is at Milton Keynes Theatre as part of a UK tour. So, the question is: has it been worth the wait? Here & Now is, fundamentally, a ridiculous concept that should not work. Set in a supermarket, yes, a supermarket, our eclectic cast of characters go through the typical dramas of many a musical as love and drama unfold against a backdrop of jukebox music. It should never work, but it does, extremely well in fact. A huge amount of the success here has to go to writer Shaun Kitchene...

Review of Blood Brothers at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

A theatre in the east midlands, a thousand people stand applauding and cheering towards a stage where fourteen people stand. There on the stage, they bow, and bow, an inordinate number of times. They depart after a time and the lights come up over the capacity audience. So did you hear the story of the Blood Brothers show, how people flocked and came to see them play? Did you never hear about how we came to be, standing applauding the brightly lit stage this November day? Come judge for yourselves how this night did come to be. Blood Brothers was a significant show for me back in 2014, being the first musical that I saw live. Hiding up in the upper circle of the Derngate back then, not really sure what to expect, it was it turned out perhaps the perfect show to graduate me from play to musical that I could choose as Willy Russell's gritty and solid story is as confident as a straight play that perhaps any musical is. So strong is the story of the Johnstone's twins, tha...

Review of National Theatre Connections 2017 (16 Shows) at Royal & Derngate (Royal & Underground), Northampton

Alongside the University of Northampton BA Actors Flash Festival, the Connections festival at Royal & Derngate is now my joint favourite week of theatre each year. This is my fourth year at the festival and each time I have tried my very best (and succeeded) in seeing more and more of those on offer (four in 2014, ten in 2015 and twelve last year). This year I cracked sixteen shows, including the most interesting, a chance to see two of the plays by three different groups. I was able to see nine of this year's ten plays (a single nagging one, Musical Differences by Robin French was missing from the R&D line-up), and most I either enjoyed or finally understood their merits or reasons for inclusion. The writing of sixteen reviews is a little bit of an daunting prospect, however, I will do my best to review each of the plays and those I saw more than once, and pick around the comparisons. Extremism by Anders Lustgarten Performed by Bedford College Extremism was perfo...

A Small Mind At The Theatre

Search This Blog