Druid returns from a sell-out international tour for an extended three-week run at The Gaiety Theatre from 28 March to 15 April. The performances will be the last in the company’s seven-month national and international run, which played to audiences in LA, New York, Boston and Hong Kong among others.
Multi-award winning Garry Hynes will direct. Garry was recently awarded Best Director in the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards for this production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane, by Martin McDonagh and for Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett.
The production has a stellar cast of Marie Mullen, Aisling O’Sullivan, Marty Rea and Aaron Monaghan – all members of the Druid Ensemble. Critics across the Atlantic have praised the performances and Mullen and O’Sullivan have both been nominated for an Irish Times Irish Theatre Award 2017.
“We’re delighted to finish this extensive tour with three weeks at home,” says Artistic Director Garry Hynes. “We started the production in Ireland and it’s always interesting for our audiences to see what little things have changed since and how they will respond to those changes. We’re enjoying an incredible run, in the middle of a coast-to-coast tour of the US with Hong Kong still to come, but finishing the tour at home feels only right.”
The Beauty Queen of Leenane is set in the mountains of Connemara and tells the story of Maureen Folan, a plain and lonely woman in her early 40s, and Mag, her manipulative, aging mother. Mag’s interference in Maureen’s first and potentially last romantic relationship sets in motion a chain of events that are as tragically funny as they are horrific.
Druid’s production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane debuted in Galway in 1996 in a co-production with the Royal Court Theatre. It then went on to play in London and transferred to the West End and Broadway to critical acclaim. The production won four Tony Awards in 1998 including Best Direction for Garry Hynes, the first woman to ever win a Tony Award for Direction. In this special 20th anniversary production, Marie Mullen plays the role of Mag, having won a Tony Award for her portrayal of Maureen in the original production. Acclaimed actress Aisling O’Sullivan will play the role of Maureen. This special anniversary production is testament to Druid’s long-standing relationship with playwright Martin McDonagh, whose name became synonymous with the company following the success of Beauty Queen and the subsequent Leenane Trilogy.
So make sure you don’t miss the last chance to see Druid’s amazing production of this award-winning play as it finishes its hugely successful run back home at the Gaiety Theatre.
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