May, 5th 8,30 pm
Filodrammatica
Iskon scena Male scene, Zagreb, croatia
Martin McDonagh: ” THE BEAUTY OUEEN OF LEENANE “
Directed by: Ivica Šimić
Translated by: Lara Holbling-Matković
Cast:
Mag Folan: Nada Subotić
Maureen Folan: Nina Erak-Svrtan
Pat Dooley: Duško Gojić
Ray Dooley: Ronald Žlabur
Set Design: Dinka Jeričević
Costumes: Danica Dedijer
Light Design: Olivije Marečić
Opening night, 17th 3 2001
The Beauty Oueen of Leenane written by the young wizard of the Irish theatre Martin McDonagh, has become a phenomenon of world theatre. Since its premiere in The Druid Theatre of Galway in 1996, this black-humoured family thriller has successfully been captivating audiences, receiving critical praise and filling the theatre-houses on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Beauty Queen of Leenane is the first part of a drama trilogy. It is followed by a play about death and guilt – A Skull in Connemara, and by The Lonesome West, which deals with the sensitivity of brotherly relationships.
From the programme booklet
The focal point of the play is “sexuality that has been suppressed for decades, a torturous sadomasochistic mother-daughter relationship, and crude family manipulation, which ali end with a brutal murder…”
During the show the relationship between the torturer and the victim slowly shifts sides, while a possible love story reaches an unexpected epilogue. Although sentimental and compassionate in tone, this play reveals the authohs deep psychological perception of his characters. Such knowledge allows him to make a cruel shift in his characters’ destinies. As the play approaches its end, it becomes a black-humoured tragic melodrama.”
Lidija Zozoli in Slobodna Dalmacija
In this dynamic and tense show, defined by Šimić’s controlled and precise direction which focuses on creating an atmosphere of staleness and social isolation as well as on the subtle disintegration of relationships among psychologically well defined characters, Nada Subotić’s Mag becomes the key centrifugal force, the basic pattern of inscrutability and of ethnic deformation which are the basis of McDonagh’s play.
Hrvoje Ivanković in Jutarnji list