It is a mark of the dearth of drama in the Irish language that the organisers of Feile 2000 have chosen to showcase the festival with a translation of The Beauty Queen of Leenane, one of the biggest box-office hits at home and abroad in recent years. It is refreshing, therefore, that the translation turns out to be more compelling than the original.
Connemara-based writer Micheal O Conghaile has stripped the play of its affectations, displaying a sensitive ear for the vernacular which the original production sadly lacked.
McDonagh's conventional linear narrative is replaced by something more meditative and fluid. This in turn makes the characterisation more convincing. The tone and texture of the translation is also a radical departure from the primary source.
O Conghaile's curt, evocative dialogue has the effect of blunting the skittish humour of the original, making it easier to sympathise with the characters rather than treating them with the comic derision favoured by McDonagh.
It is a sensitive and subtle staging that is well served by Diarmuid De Faoite's deft direction and by an outstanding cast. Mairead Ni Chonghaile soars as Mairin, the middle-aged spinster with constricted horizons, while Sean O Tarpaigh and Darach Mac Con Iomaire give performances of searing honesty as Pato and Re. Maire Stafford is also convincing as Meaig, the cold-eyed manipulative mother.
Billed as the reclamation of a text that was already larded with Gaelicisms, Banrion Alainn an Lionain follows the trend set in recent years by the Abbey in their translations of some of Synge's lesser-known works.
Plays until Saturday September(booking at 01-6082461) prior to tour