A ‘Beauty Queen’ Seen in Close-Up

The unsuspecting may wonder if “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” with its County Galway setting, might be a festive way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day next weekend. I don’t think so--not unless you’re celebrating that your forebears left Ireland when the going was good.

Martin McDonagh’s domestic thriller, in its Southland premiere at South Coast Repertory, crackles with bitter humor, but its characters’ Irish eyes aren’t smilin’.

“Beauty Queen” wouldn’t be quite right for a Mother’s Day treat, either. Mag (Anne Gee Byrd) spends most of her waking hours huddled in her rocker, complaining about her ailments and the shortcomings of her 40-year-old daughter Maureen (Heather Ehlers). Maureen, whose sexual experience has been limited to a couple of kisses, waits on her mother hand and foot and resents her for it--though she occasionally takes a break by going out into the rain to feed the chickens.

It hardly sounds like the stuff of exciting drama. But McDonagh introduces the possibility of change into Maureen’s life via a handsome neighbor, Pato (Tim Murphy)--and this instills panic within Mag. The conflict between these two women becomes a harrowing fight to the finish.

McDonagh shot to international renown based primarily on this play, in the process acquiring a bad-boy reputation that may mislead playgoers about the nature of his work. Other than taking glee in the insults that the younger generation flings at the old woman in the play, he’s no iconoclast, at least not in “Beauty Queen.”

It’s resolutely old-fashioned in its realistic surfaces and use of dramatic devices--and McDonagh wields them like a master craftsman. Although the central characterizations are rich, McDonagh trimmed any sign of fat from his writing. Indeed, with all the hoopla for this play, audiences may expect something on a bigger scale. “Beauty Queen” is a chamber drama; there is only one additional character besides those mentioned above: Pato’s brother Ray (Rob King), who serves as a messenger, as comic relief and as yet another indication of the dead-end prospects for young people in this part of the world.

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Recognizing the scale of the piece, South Coast placed it in the relatively small Second Stage--a sharp-thrust stage configuration, with viewers on three sides, in contrast to the proscenium staging the play received on Broadway. This certainly brings most of the audience close to the action--you can see the scars on the old woman’s skin and the nuances of feeling fluttering across the square, craggy features of actress Byrd.

While sitting in the center section of the audience, I occasionally wondered if everything was as clearly visible to those on the extreme sides. Probably in order to ward off such complaints, director Andrew J. Robinson placed a long monologue by Pato--actually, his recitation of a letter that he wrote from England--near the back of the stage, where everyone can see him but where he’s also in the middle of the women’s house, as opposed to the more neutral and distanced position from which this monologue was played on Broadway. This is a minor distraction that might be solved by fine-tuning the lighting. Generally, however, the added intimacy compensates for any small problems.

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Likewise, the casting--while not as authentic as the all-Irish cast that played in New York (and won three of the production’s four Tonys)--is very good. Byrd’s crafty, eyebrow-raising Mag is a marvel of subtle precision. Ehlers elongates her pretty face into a formidable scowl and a mournful cloud. Murphy is, in fact, Irish, shaggy-haired, and adept at conveying Pato’s embarrassment as well as his seductive qualities. King, underneath a backward baseball cap, embodies the unfocused impatience of youth and its accompanying frustration.

The only feature that’s missing is purely cosmetic--the two women here aren’t as stout as the corresponding actresses on Broadway. Byrd’s Mag is a little too spry, and Ehlers’ Maureen looks so trim that Pato’s honorary name for her--”the beauty queen of Leenane”--is surprisingly plausible, leading one to question just why these two never got together in the preceding 20 years. Still, Linda Carol Davisson’s layers of heavy clothes for the two women, as well as the clouds that perpetually hang over the house on Michael Devine’s set, help answer that question. Most of the dreariness of life in “Leenane” is intact, and so is the beauty of McDonagh’s writing.

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* “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tuesdays-Sundays, 7:45 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends April 9. $26-$45. (714) 708-5555. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

Anne Gee Byrd: Mag

Heather Ehlers: Maureen

Rob King: Ray

Tim Murphy: Pato

Written by Martin McDonagh. Directed by Andrew J. Robinson. Set by Michael Devine. Costumes by Linda Carol Davisson. Lighting by Tom Ruzika. Sound by Justus Matthews. Voice/dialect consultant Lynn Watson. Stage manager Lisa Bacani.