Review: THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE is deliciously wicked at The Baxter

If you think your family has issues... Wait until you see the relationship between mother and daughter in THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE! This deliciously dark comedy is on at the Pam Golding Theatre at the Baxter until 19 August.

THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE is written by Martin McDonagh and revolves around the relationship between daughter Maureen (Julie-Anne McDowell) and mother Mag (Jennifer Steyn). Mag is in need of a caregiver and Maureen is the only one of her children who (at the age of 40) is still single and therefore able to live with her in a rural town and take care of her. Of course, this causes some major friction. Mag struggling with being dependent and Maureen hating being held back in life. Enter their neighbour, Ray Dooley (Sven Ruygrok) to invite them to a party at his family's place - and the possibility of a romantic interlude with his brother Pato Dooley (Bryan Hiles) for Maureen enters the story.

This play is wicked. You want to love the characters and you want to hate them. You can't quite work out who the villain is and who the hero is. They all are and none of them are - they're just deeply flawed human beings. And the humour makes you laugh out loud, even though you know you really shouldn't be laughing at the situation.

While they were all excellent in their roles, I have to admit that Sven Ruygrok stole it for me. He was hilarious and somehow adorable in characterisation of a young man with no real prospects in life. I'm still giggling about the swing ball story.

A lot has been said about the set for this production. It's even won a Naledi Award for designer Greg King and I can see why. There was a lot of detail in it, making almost all of it hyper-realistic. I'm just not too sure why there were these peices of "exposed rock" that looked painted. It spoiled the overall feel for me a bit.

This also leads me to one small thing that bugged me - in a realistic set that has a kettle that can boil and taps that have running water, the actors need to be realistic in the way they work with those props. There were several cups of tea being made where the actions were too quick and not realistic. I know it's a tiny thing to be mentioning, but it bugged me.

Moving on - I am so glad that I finally got to see THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE now that it's in Cape Town. I can highly recommend you go and watchi it!

THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE is on at the Pam Golding Theatre at the Baxter until 19 August. Tickets are available on Webtickets and range between R150-R240.

Photo credit: Claude Barnardo

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