BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE To Play Curve And Mercury, Oct/Nov 2013

As part of its celebratory 5th Birthday Season, Leicester's Curve theatre is producing Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane in a co-production with The Mercury Theatre Colchester.

Michelle Moran leads the company as Maureen, with Nora Connolly as Mags, Stephen Hogan as Pato and Andrew Macklin as Ray.

Directed by Curve Artistic Director Paul Kerryson, this is the third McDonagh play to be produced at Curve following the successful runs of The Pillowman and The Lieutenant of Inishmore. The collaboration with Mercury Theatre Colchester follows the success of their critically acclaimed co-production of The Hired Man in April 2013.

The Beauty Queen of Leenane charts the life of Maureen Folan, a 40 year old virgin, her relationship with her manipulative mother, Mags, and her brush with romance in the mountains of County Galway, Ireland.

When Pato, a middle-aged local man returns from working in England, Maureen's last chance for love is offered. However, as their relationship flourishes a shocking and disturbing train of events is set in motion.

Playing Maureen Folan is Michelle Moran whose extensive stage credits include Dancing At Lughnasa (Royal and Derngate/Oxford Playhouse), Love In A Glass Jar (Abbey Theatre), Playboy Of The Western World, (Nuffield Theatre), Day Before Spring (Sadler's Wells), Silverlands (Druid Theatre, Ireland) Othello, Don Carlos and Volpone (RSC). Hecuba (Brooklyn Academy Of Music and Kennedy Centre, Washington USA), Pericles, The Princes Play and A Little Night Music (National Theatre). On television she has appeared in Titanic, Trial and Retribution, Hotel Babylon and Inspector Linley.

A familiar face to Leicester audiences, Nora Connolly plays Mags. This sees her second collaboration with Paul Kerryson following their work on The Cripple of Inishmaan at Leicester Haymarket. Her previous theatre credits include Rouge Rifles & Revolvers (Riverside Studios), Bloomsday, (Liverpool Irish Festival) Bedtime Story (Young Vic), The Plough and The Stars(National Theatre), Translations, (Bristol Old Vic), Moll Flanders (Lancaster Dukes Theatre) and Playboy of the Western World, The Sound of Music, The Plough and The Stars (Leicester Haymarket). Film work includes Michael Winner's, Parting Shots andThe Witches and television appearances include Perfect Day and Sins.

Pato is Stephen Hogan whose theatre credits include Merrily We Roll Along (Derby Playhouse), The Importance of Being Earnest, Macbeth, Translations, Angels in America, St Joan, Mutabilitie (Abbey Theatre), Fast Food (Manchester Royal Exchange), Peer Gynt (National Theatre) and Richard III (Leicester Haymarket directed by Paul Kerryson). Film credits include the leading role of in The Dark Prince, Earthbound, The Sweeter Side of Life and The Ballad of Honky McSwain. Television work includes Injustice, Saving the Titanic, Primeval, The Line of Beauty, and The Tudors.

Andrew Macklin joins the cast as Ray. On stage he has also appeared in King Lear, A Picture of DorIan Grey, Three Sisters(Abbey Theatre), The Mercy Seat, (York Theatre Royal), The Only True History of Lizzie Finn (Southwark Playhouse) and I'll be the Devil (RSC). For TV he is a series regular on Fair City (RTE).

Martin McDonagh is a multi-award-winning Irish playwright, screenwriter and film director. His plays include The Leenane Trilogy: The Beauty Queen of Leenane, A Skull in Connemara and The Lonesome West; The Aran Islands Trilogy: The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Lieutenant of Inishmore and The Banshees of Inisheer (unpublished); The Pillowman and A Behanding in Spokane. His screenplays include Six Shooter (Academy Award), In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths.

The Beauty Queen of Leenane will run in Curve's Studio from 18 October - 9 November before moving to The Mercury Theatre Colchester, where it will play from 13 - 23 November.

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