Review: An engrossing 'Beauty Queen of Leenane' at Northlight

I’ve never been quite certain what prolific Anglo-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh attempted to convey with “The Beauty Queen of Leenane.” Thwarted dreams? Missed opportunities? Loneliness? The cliché every woman becomes her mother?

Always billed as a “dark comedy” (I prefer human drama with comedic lines), it did win four Tonys, an Olivier and a Drama Desk Award. And there’s plenty of bitterness, resentment and a great deal of sadness shared before the very audible audience-gasping conclusion.

“The Beauty Queen of Leenane” tells the story of Maureen Folan, living in caretaking isolation in the remote western Irish village of Leenane with her mother, Mag. Visitors and interactions are few, but a romantic encounter is about to provide an escape from Mag’s manipulation and interference.

In his 20th season, Northlight’s Artistic Director B.J. Jones has presented an exquisitely acted production; it’s a strong four-character play with a superbly cast ensemble. Jones has other McDonaghs in his repertoire, and, once again, he excels with an intense and compelling direction complimented by Todd Rosenthal’s scenic design and Theresa Ham’s costumes.

Rosenthal’s set captures the bleakness and dreariness of the isolated Irish cottage; the furniture is battered, tatty, weathered and worn. There’s a picture of the Pope on one fading wall and the Kennedys hanging on another shabby, fading wall-papered wall. The kitchen chairs are peeling, the table is Formica and the small TV sits on a crate. Ham’s costumes are dark, dreary and totally appropriate to the characters; only the costumes of the character of Ray are as colorful as he is.

Award-winning actress Kate Fry is Maureen Folan; she is devastatingly good as the sardonic love-starved 40-year-old whose life has stalled in her role as caretaker of her 70-year-old mother, Mag. Mag is portrayed by the captivating Wendy Robie. (Small world: I saw her as Regan in Stratford’s 2007 “King Lear.”) Robie is a sad, bent-over old woman full of sadism, cruelty and poison – a passive aggressive tyrant. Fry and Robie have a symbiotic mother-daughter relationship, and they sizzle in their devastation. Yet, they really do speak to your sympathies in their desperation, fear of loss and dashed hopes. Casey Morris, as the young Ray Dooley, provides much of the comedy, and he’s an expressive spark in his scenes. Nathan Horner is his older brother, Pato, Maureen’s kind, romantic interest. He’s tall, handsome and convincingly sweet. Ray is the stayer in Leenane; Pato is the first to escape, first to London, then to Boston. Both actors are charming. By the way, the Irish accents are authentic, and Northlight has provided a helpful handy reference sheet in case the vocabulary is confounding.

McDonagh is a candid observer of life. “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” was his first play, written when he was in his 20s. Maureen’s comments about being bullied as a cleaner in Leeds are based on the stories his Irish mother told of similar abuse while working as a cleaner in London. And, like Pato, his father was a construction laborer. By the age of 27, McDonagh was the first playwright since Shakespeare to have four plays running simultaneously in London’s West End. Now 48, his most recent fame includes his screenplay for the Oscar-winning “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Perhaps, very clearly an intriguing indictment of “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” is a past quote of McDonagh’s: “I suppose I walk that line between comedy and cruelty because one illuminates the other.” Northlight’s engrossing production walks that line nobly, while still letting us glimpse decency and hope in even the most quirky character. It’s a beauty.

• Regina Belt-Daniels is a working actress and director who began her career onstage in 1985 at the Woodstock Opera House. Formerly serving on the Raue Center for the Arts Board, she also is a lifetime member of TownSquare Players and a retired District 47 teacher.

“THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE”

WHEN: Through April 22

WHERE: Northlight Theater at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd, Skokie

COST & INFO: This Tony Award-winning dark comedy is set in the provincial Irish town of Leenane. Forty-year-old spinster Maureen Folan lives with her manipulative aging mother, Mag, stuck in a caretaking relationship that has them both seething with resentment. Two acts with one intermission. Tickets: $30 to $81, student tickets cost $15. Tickets and information: 847-673-6300 www.northlight.org.