Mag has a bad back and a badly burned hand, but Maureen suspects that she can do more than she lets on. The play combines thrilling elements of farce and melodrama with a searing critique on the Irish belief in the sanctity of the family.

OK, let’s examine why Martin McDonagh’s coruscating, utterly brilliant plays that address the human condition like an impossible, dangerous friend are always described as Tarantinoesque. Photograph: The Other Richard View image in fullscreen Fiendishly sharp … Susan Twist, left, and Elizabeth Appleby in The Beauty Queen of Leenane.However, when he urges her to dress herself for warmth, she becomes insecure about her appearance and throws a tantrum. In the mountains of Connemara, County Galway, Maureen Folan – a plain, lonely woman, tied to her manipulative and ageing mother, Mag – comes alive at her first and possibly last prospect of a new life.

It won the 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play and the Drama League award for Best Play the same year.We feared the poker, so wanted by young Ray to despatch the coppers "so you see the blood pour from them", might be deployed. He tells her not to worry that he experienced dysfunction during their sexual tryst, as he was drunk. uk or 0131 228 1404 so we can arrange reserved seating for you and discuss how else we can best support your visit. Rachel O’Riordan directs a major revival of this darkly comic, award-winning play by Martin McDonagh ( Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; The Lieutenant of Inishmore), starring Adam Best ( Giri/Haji), Ingrid Craigie ( Roadkill; The Cripple of Inishmaan), Orla Fitzgerald ( The Young Offenders) and Kwaku Fortune ( Line of Duty; Normal People).

It transferred to London's West End, where it opened at the Royal Court Theatre on 29 February 1996. While Maureen is out, the Folan home is visited by Ray Dooley, a young man, who invites both women to a farewell party for his visiting American uncle. He has never spoken to Maureen in the twenty years that he’s known her, but he reveals that he has always considered her “the beauty queen of Leenane. She claims Mag sometimes tries to tell lies about the past, thinking Maureen is unable to discern them from reality.

Directed by Garry Hynes, the cast stars Marie Mullen as Mag, Aisling O'Sullivan as Maureen, Aaron Monaghan as Ray and Marty Rea as Pato. Photograph: Helen Maybanks View image in fullscreen Claustrophobic isolation … Orla Fitzgerald as Maureen in The Beauty Queen of Leenane. However, it soon becomes clear that Maureen imagined her reunion with Pato; he actually left by taxi without ever seeing Maureen, and is now engaged to a woman with whom he danced at the party. Pato is a construction worker who lives primarily in London, though he is unhappy both there and in Leenane. I saw this play at the Young Vic some years back but did not fully appreciate it until reading the play text just recently.