Martin McDonagh’s “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” defies genre. Throughout its fast-moving 2-1/4 hours, this psychological thriller swings wildly between humor, horror, mystery and tragedy.
The 1996 Irish play was last staged professionally in San Diego — at least in my recollection — in 2001 at San Diego Repertory Theatre. It has returned this summer in a new production by Backyard Renaissance Theatre at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center in East Village.
In recent years, Backyard — and its artistic director, s Gercke — have made spooky dramas and black comedies their specialty, and McDonagh’s dark and violent play is a perfect fit for that skill set.
Set in a small village in Ireland’s Connemara region in 1995, the play is about 40-year-old Maureen Folan, the never-married reluctant caregiver of her needy 70-year-old mother, Mag. They live together, mostly unhappily, until Mag’s teenage love interest, Pato Dooley, returns to the village on a brief visit from England and they rekindle the old flame.
Maureen dreams of leaving Mag to start a new life with Pato, but Mag secretly sabotages her plans. Is Mag doing what’s best for herself or for her mentally troubled daughter? All is not what it seems in this very twisty, eerie and deeply unsettling play.
Everything about the Backyard production is excellent, from Gercke’s nail-bitingly tense direction, to the fine four-member cast, to Curtis Mueller’s gorgeous lighting and Tony Cucuzzella’s elaborately detailed Irish cottage set. Dialect coach Grace Delaney has also done fine work training the actors in authentic Western Ireland accents.
Headlining the cast are Jessica John as Maureen and Deborah Gilmour Smyth as Mag. They first teamed up onstage as a battling daughter and mother in Backyard’s 2023 production of “August: Osage County” and their re-teaming this year is even more explosive. John’s understated Maureen is a lion disguised as a lamb, and Smyth’s fragile Mag has a wild-eyed, gleeful wickedness as she delights in her schemes.
MJ Sieber is gentle, endearing and sincere as Pato, the soft-spoken beau, who describes Maureen as the town’s “beauty queen.” And Nick Daughtery is the play’s very welcome comic relief as Pato’s goofy younger cousin, Ray Dooley.
The production also features sound by Logan Kirkendall and costumes by Jessica John Gercke (she acts under the last name John but designs under the name John Gercke).
To say any more about “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” would spoil its many surprises. But this is a very good play done very well by Backyard Renaissance and it’s definitely a must-see for summer.
‘The Beauty Queen of Leenane’
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays. (Also 7:30 p.m. July 2-3 and 7 p.m. July 8). Through July 13
Where: Backyard Renaissance Theatre at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center, 930 Tenth Ave., downtown
Tickets: $18-$40
Phone: (760) 975-7189
Online: backyardrenaissance.com
