Rogue Theatre production takes on the impact of scarcity on the human condition

The Rogue Theatre takes to rural Ireland for its next production: “The Beauty Queen of Leenane.”

The Martin McDonagh play tells the story of the aging Mag and her spinster daughter Maureen as their comic and appalling lives are brought to a head as a romance develops for Maureen that Mag resents.

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Director Christopher Johnson gives us three reasons to see the play.

1. “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” is a folk tale about the impact of scarcity on the human condition. Like most folk tales, it is very dark, just as mysterious, and carries with it an ever-present threat of blood. Also like most folk tales, the monsters under the bed are really us — lost souls fighting for survival in a world of plenty with seemingly not enough to go around.
2. London-born to Irish immigrants, McDonagh often writes about the coalescing factors the Irish have endured that would provoke desperate acts of violence in any country, community, family or sane human being. This complicated relationship of where and from whom we come, and how to liberate ourselves from those bonds without losing too much in the process, is the question at the forefront of the story.
3. The play uses humor, grief, loneliness and charm as only the Irish can render them.