The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Other Plays
by Martin McDonagh
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Read in April, 2007
recommends it for:
Those who sometimes want to murder the ones they love... or just torment them for a while
A collection of three dark dark dark hilarious Irish plays. All three plays overlap and tell the stories of the residents of a small western Irish village. Father Welsh, Walsh, Welsh presides over a parrish that tends to murder and committ suicide. From the daughter and mother who hate each other, the brothers who keep each other in a black-mailed contract, and the grave-digger who may or may not have killed his wife, all of these characters can definitely hold a grudge.
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Read in January, 2005
Feckin right this is a good set of plays; yeh feck yeh. This playwright makes action happen on stage. It is not like some Shakespeare where people go off and come back to describe what just happened beyond the curtain. McDonagh brings it all and throws it in the face of the audience. Eggs are smashed on an actors head, on stage. Cats are shot with a hand gun right in front of you. It is all very organic stuff. Shit and pee and puss and mildew and fire and guts.
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The Beauty Queen of Leenane is my favorite Martin McDonagh play because I saw it in previews at the Atlantic Theater Co. before it moved to Broadway to eventually win the Tony Award for Best play in 1998. McDonagh is a natural playwright who brings out dark deep secrets of the characters to life on the page and on stage. His dialogue chisels away the outer layers down to the bones.
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Read in January, 2007
Disturbing, dark, cruel, and unusual, these plays are not in the least bit cuddly, but they are definitely funny. McDonagh is one of the most original and clever playwrights today, and this trilogy about the miserable and bitter residents of Leenane make him the Tarantino of the theater world--well, an IRISH Tarantino. I bet they'd make good friends.
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The last play in this collection (The Lonesome West) is worth buying the book. I actually am not all that impressed with Beauty Queen or Skull, but I think that's only because I expect otherworldly things from McDonagh and these are just really good.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in November, 2006
this set of plays (particularly The Beauty Queen...) were very creepy, yet i couldnt put the book down. i read it for an english class and was iffy about it at first, but ended up ok with having to read it.
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Read in July, 2006
recommends it for:
meanies
There are three plays here that I have wanted to see performed since reading this. Mean-spirited, sharp-tongued, hilarious- each of these was deeply enjoyable.
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Read in September, 2007
This one was much more disturbing than A Skull in Connemara. I had a hard time with the ending. But again, I think I would like seeing it performed.
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Three different plays, all good, all highlighting the dark - even mean - side of Irish life and culture. "Beauty Queen" is excruciatingly harsh.
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This book was amazing. It was a good read and I loved the plotline and the way everything was written. A must read.
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Read in February, 2007
i think this dude is overrated. It wasn't bad, but i suffered from high expectations.
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Read in January, 2007
Great plays, but be warned, utterly brutal family portraits.
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Read in September, 2001
So dark. So disturbing. So good.
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