The Beauty Queen Of Leenane (Modern Classics)

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Only when Cillian Ó Gairbhí shows up as Pato, very much not the playboy of the western world, does she reveal her inner beauty queen. Maureen, knowing Mag should not have that information, tortures Mag with hot oil until she confesses the contents of the letter. Photograph: The Other Richard View image in fullscreen Fiendishly sharp … Susan Twist, left, and Elizabeth Appleby in The Beauty Queen of Leenane.

OK, let’s examine why Martin McDonagh’s coruscating, utterly brilliant plays that address the human condition like an impossible, dangerous friend are always described as Tarantinoesque. In the mountains of Connemara, County Galway, Maureen Folan – a plain, lonely woman, tied to her manipulative and ageing mother, Mag – comes alive at her first and possibly last prospect of a new life. Directed by Garry Hynes, the cast stars Marie Mullen as Mag, Aisling O'Sullivan as Maureen, Aaron Monaghan as Ray and Marty Rea as Pato.That extends to the techniques used by McDonagh, whose The Banshees of Inisherin has just opened in cinemas. Brilliant Ray Dooley, younger brother of Pato, played so well by Marty Breen, was wooed throughout by daytime telly.

He tells her not to worry that he experienced dysfunction during their sexual tryst, as he was drunk. I saw this play at the Young Vic some years back but did not fully appreciate it until reading the play text just recently.

When Pato reads his letter to Maureen, speaking of his own loneliness and desire for connection, it is so powerfully performed by Best that it threatens to take the emotional focus away from the mother-daughter drama altogether. View image in fullscreen Quietly manipulative … Ingrid Craigie as Mag in The Beauty Queen of Leenane.