AUDITIONS NOTICE:
THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE
By Martin McDonagh
Directed by Steve Catron (eagleswon@yahoo.com)
WHEN: March 4 and 6 at 7 PM
WHERE: Black River Playhouse (Corner of Grove and Maple) in Chester, New Jersey
Performance Dates: May 4-6, 11-12, and 18-20, 2012.
For further information, contact the director, Stephen Catron, at leenane@chestertheatregroup.org
All roles are open. The play has four characters, 2 males, 2 females:
- MAUREEN FOLAN – 40s.
- MAG FOLAN – her mother, 60s.
- PATO DOOLEY – 40s.
- RAY DOOLEY – Pato’s brother, 20s
The play is a blend of black comedy, melodrama, and bleak tragedy. Set in the Irish village of Leenane in the early 1990s.
Centering on the life of Maureen Folan, a 40-ish-year-old spinster who takes care of her selfish and manipulative 60-ish-year-old mother Mag. Maureen's sisters have escaped into marriage and family life, but Maureen, with a history of mental illness, is trapped in a seriously dysfunctional relationship with her mother.
The Folan cottage is visited by Pato Dooley and his younger brother Ray. Pato is a 40-ish construction worker fed up with having to live and work in England, disappointed by the limitations and loneliness of his life. The day-to-day sameness is tedious also for Ray 20-ish, a non-threatening "bad boy."
The glimmer of a last-chance romance between Maureen and Pato sparks up in the first act, and continues in the second one with a notable monologue of Pato. The plot, full of deceptions, secrets and betrayals interspersed with turnabouts, keeps surprising the audience.
