USM's Theater Season to Open with BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE

Martin McDonagh's dark comedy, "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" kicks off the University of Southern Maine's 2015-16 theater season. Directed by Thomas Power, and taking place as USM's annual production at the Portland Stage Company Studio Theatre (25A Forest Avenue, Portland), the show will appear nightly?,? Oct. 7-10, at 7:30 p.m.

Set in the small Irish village of Leenane, Connemara, this brutally comedic story centers on the dysfunctional relationship of Maureen and her mother Mag, who conspires to keep her daughter alone and unloved.

Maureen is middle-aged, unmarried, and never dreamt of such a suffocating existence with her vindictive, spiteful mother. A glimmer of last-chance romance between Maureen and local gentleman Pato pulls the audience into a rabbit hole of deception, secrets, and betrayals, interspersed with grimly comic turnabouts. Hopes are raised, only to be dashed and, like a kettle about to boil over, the dysfunction between mother and daughter soon reaches a simmering pitch.

More information and ticketing for the show can be found at http://www.usm.maine.edu/theatre