Original Director, Star Reunite Tonight for Druid's 20th Anniversary Production of THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE at BAM

Druid Theatre will remount Martin McDonagh's sensational, award-winning dark comedy, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, at BAM's Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St.) this winter.

Ireland's esteemed theater company, Druid, marks its BAM debut with this 20th-anniversary revival of Martin McDonagh's Tony Award-winning pitch-black comedy.

The first in a trilogy of plays set in the provincial Irish town of Leenane, The Beauty Queen of Leenane tells the story of spinster Maureen Folan who lives with her manipulative, aging mother Mag. They spend their days aggressively nagging, scratching, and jabbing each other with insults. But when Maureen meets a viable suitor who is smitten with her, Mag sets in motion a chain of events that hilariously and horrifyingly threaten her daughter's last likely chance for a romantic relationship. Not to be outdone, Maureen plots and enacts a chilling revenge -- an action that ultimately seals her purgatorial existence.

Druid Co-Founder Marie Mullen, who won a Tony Award for her 1998 performance as Maureen in the original production, now takes on the fearsome role of mother Mag, under the direction of Co-Founder and Artistic Director Garry Hynes - the first woman to win a Tony Award for direction. Aisling O'Sullivan, Marty Rea, and Aaron Monaghan complete the cast.

Druid was founded in Galway in 1975 by graduates of the National University of Ireland, Galway: Garry Hynes, Mick Lally (1945-2010), and Marie Mullen. Since its foundation, Druid has been at the forefront of the development of Irish theater and consistently brings groundbreaking productions of classic and new works to the world stage. It was the first professional theater company in Ireland to be based outside of Dublin and last year celebrated its 40th year producing theater. Druid productions have won over 50 awards in Ireland and internationally, including four Tony Awards for the company's world premiere of Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane.

The play features set design by Francis O'Connor, lighting design by James F. Ingalls, sound design by Greg Clarke, and composer Paddy Cunneen.

Performances run at the BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St.): Jan 11-14, 17-21, 24-28, 31-Feb 4 at 7:30pm; (press invited Jan 12 & 13) Jan 14, 21, 28, Feb 4 at 2pm; and Jan 15, 22, 29, Feb 5 at 3pm. Tickets start at $25.

Master Class: Behind the Scenes:
The Beauty Queen of Leenane
With Neil Kutner and Jennifer Grutza
Jan 19 at 5pm, Kriegel Conference Rooms (30 Lafayette Ave)
1hr 45mins plus post-show tour and discussion
Price: $25; $12.50 for members
Visit BAM.org/#classes for more information and to register.

For ticket information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Director Garry Hynes founded Druid in 1975 and has worked as its artistic director from 1975 to 1991, and from 1995 to date. From 1991 to 1994 she was artistic director of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Born in Ballaghadereen, Co Roscommon, Ireland in 1953 Garry moved to Galway with her family in 1965. In 1971, she worked toward an Arts Degree (History & English) in University College, Galway. Upon leaving college in 1975, Garry founded Druid Theatre with Marie Mullen and Mick Lally. Garry has also worked with Gate Theatre (Ireland) and internationally with the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Royal Court (UK), and with Second Stage, Signature Theater, and Manhattan Theater Club in New York; as well as the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

Aaron Monoghan (Ray Dooley) trained at the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin, and at the British American Drama Academy, Oxford. His previous work includes the Abbey Theatre's 16 Possible Glimpses, Translations, Arrah na Pogue, Christ Deliver Us!, Romeo and Juliet, Drama at Inish, The Shaughraun, Finders Keepers, The Burial at Thebes, I Do Not Like Thee, Doctor Fell!, The Wolf of Winter and She Stoops to Conquer; and Druid's DruidMurphy (Ireland, UK, Washington DC and New York), DruidSynge (Galway, Dublin, Edinburgh International Festival, Inis Meain, New York, Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis), Empress of India, The Walworth Farce, The Year of the Hiker, The Cripple Of Inishmaan (Ireland, UK, Off- Broadway New York), Penelope (London and Washington DC) and The Playboy of the Western World (Ireland, UK, Perth, Tokyo). Other theatre work includes A Christmas Carol (The Ark), Alone it Stands (Ireland, UK and Malaysia), Pubu (Articulate Anatomy), Roberto
Zucco (Bedrock Productions), The Ballad of Pat McNab, Ride On! and The Tinker's
Curse (Livin' Dred), Handel's Crossing (Fishamble: The New Play Company), and Falling Out Of Love (Yew Tree Theatre). Television and film credits include Love/Hate, Single-Handed, Jack Taylor, The Other Side of Sleep, Little Foxes, Ella Enchanted, Deep Breaths, The Last Furlong, Speed Dating, Hide and Seek, The Deep End, The Tudors, Hideaways, and LSD: 73. He received an OBIE Award for outstanding performance, a Lucille Lortel Award for best actor and a Manchester Evening Standard Award for best actor for his performance as Cripple Billy in The Cripple Of Inishmaan. He is a founding member of Livin' Dred Theatre Company which is based in Cavan.

Actress Marie Mullen (Mag) has received the Harvey's Irish Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actress, The Sunday Independent Actress of the Year Award (1984), and The Evening Herald Actress of the Year Award. She won best actress in The Irish Times/ESB Irish Theatre Awards 2004 for her roles in DruidSynge productions of The Well of the Saints and The Tinker's Wedding. Other Druid productions include The Playboy of the Western World (Perth, Australia tour 2005), The Loves of Cass Maguire, Bailegangaire, and The Beauty Queen of Leenane. She has also appeared in Royal Shakespeare Company's King Lear, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Love of Nightingale, and The Man of Mode; Abbey and Peacock Theatres' The Plough and the Stars, The Power of Darkness, A Crucial Week in the Life of a Grocer's Assistant, Famine, Big Maggie, and The Cavalcaders; and the Gate Theatre's Crestfall. Her film work includes The Butcher Boy, Dancing at Lughnasa, When Brendan Met Trudy, and Disco Pigs.

Aisling O'Sullivan (Maureen) is familiar to Irish television audiences as Dr. Cathy Costello from the drama series The Clinic, a role for which she won an Irish Film and Television Awards best actress award in 2008. She garnered acclaim for her performance as Widow Quin in Druid's 2004 production of The Playboy of the Western World, which starred Cillian Murphy and Anne-Marie Duff. In 2011 and 2012, she toured Ireland again with Druid, playing the titular character in Big Maggie and was consequently nominated for Best Actress in The Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards. Other stage appearances include National Theatre's Liolà, Mutabilitie, and The Cripple of Inishmaan. In a breakout role, O'Sullivan starred in the independent film The Butcher Boy as Francie's mentally unstable mother. She also appeared briefly in another Neil Jordan film, Michael Collins, as well as Six Shooter, Martin McDonagh's Oscar-winning short film. O'Sullivan is currently starring in Raw, an RTÉ drama about a restaurant, playing restaurant manager Fiona Kelly.

Marty Rea (Pato Dooley) graduated from The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London. Rea has won two Irish Times Theatre Awards for best actor in 2010 and 2015 for his work in Hamlet and DruidShakespeare. Previous work includes the Abbey Theatre's She Stoops to Conquer, The Hanging Gardens, Major Barbara, John Gabriel Borkman (BAM Winter Spring 2011), The Rivals, Only an Apple, An Ideal Husband, The Big House, Saved, and The Importance of Being Earnest. His other work includes Druid's Brigit, Be Infants in Evil, The Colleen Bawn, Conversations on a Homecoming, Whistle in the Dark, and Famine (DruidMurphy). He also appeared in the Gate Theatre's Juno and the Paycock, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Caretaker, An Ideal Husband, My Cousin Rachel, Little Women, Hay Fever, Arcadia, The Glass Menagerie, and Salomé. Rea's other credits include Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Second Age Theatre Company), Improbable Frequency (New York tour), Pentecost and Spokesong (Rough Magic Theatre Company), and Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Livin' Dred Theatre Company).

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, and BAMcafé are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). Both locations house Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks. BAM Fisher, located at 321 Ashland Place, is the newest addition to the BAM campus and houses the Judith and Alan Fishman Space and Rita K. Hillman Studio. BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn's only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafé, operated by Great Performances, offers a dinner menu prior to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House evening performances. BAMcafé also features an eclectic mix of live music for BAMcafé Live on Friday and Saturday nights with a bar menu available starting at 6pm.

Photo by Stephen Cummiskey