Article: 'Beauty Queen,' Missing Congeniality

The setup of "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" couldn't seem more tender: In an Irish mountain village, Maureen Folan, the fair miss of the title, cares for Mag, her getting-on-in-years mum, who likes to sit in her favorite chair with a blanket over her lap. Maureen cooks her mother porridge on their wood-burning stove, and they pass the time listening to the radio.

Maureen also tells Mag stories -- her favorite being a most graphic daydream in which Maureen lures a murderer to their shabby home to do away with the old bat for good. When Mag points out that the criminal would probably kill Maureen, too, the fed-up daughter decides that it'd be an acceptable price to pay.

So the Folans aren't ...

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