Less than a year after battling as mother and daughter in Backyard Renaissance Theatre’s production of Tracy Letts’ “August: Osage County,” Deborah Gilmour Smyth and Jessica John are at odds again, this time in Martin McDonagh’s dark and dysfunction-cursed play “The Beauty Queen of Leenane.”
In the Backyard production of McDonagh’s 1996 play, the first in his “Leenane Trilogy” set in a County Galway village, Gilmour Smyth portrays ailing and cantankerous Mag, the 70-year-old mother of middle-aged spinster daughter Maureen, played by John.
Theirs is a relationship fraught with anger, resentment and broken dreams.“They’re two women stuck together,” explained John, who is also executive director of Backyard Renaissance, “desperately trying to survive and create something worth living for.”
“The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” last produced in San Diego in 2001 at San Diego Repertory Theatre, will be directed by Backyard Artistic Director Frances Gercke. Also in the cast are MJ Sieber as Maureen’s lover, Pato, and Nick Daugherty as Pato’s younger brother Ray.
John, her husband Gercke and assistant director Grace Delaney previously collaborated on another Irish play, John Millington Synge’s “Play of the Western World,” in 2006 at New Village Arts in Carlsbad.
“I love Irish stories,” said John. “Fran loves Irish stories. I was always interested in this piece (‘Beauty Queen’). Maureen is such a heartbreaking character who still dreams. Grace (Delaney) says it’s very common, particularly in remote areas in Ireland, for the youngest child to get stuck taking care of their parents. Maureen didn’t just settle into that – she tried to escape and circumstances brought her back.”
John says she asked Gilmour Smyth about the possibility of playing Mag shortly after “August: Osage County” finished its engagement last fall.
“Debbie and I had such a fabulous time working together on that show,” she said. “We both enjoyed the process. I’m always aiming to work with people I admire, and Debbie has certainly been one of them.”
John said she recognizes similarities in hers and Smyth’s characters from “August” (Barbara Fordham and Violet Weston) and “Beauty Queen” (Maureen and Mag).
“Speaking as a middle-aged woman, I think it’s interesting that both of these playwrights (Letts and McDonagh) are male and that they tapped into something that I can connect to,” John said. “You see your youth and unfortunately a lot of times for women they see it dwindle and they still want somebody to see them and see their value. There’s a kind of beautiful vulnerability to that.
“There are such incredible things that women grow into as they pass that phase when they’re looked at as young and pretty and they get to discover who they really are.”
The searching Maureen, disillusioned and disappointed by her lot in life, is a complex character, and that’s important to John as an actor.
“I like to play complicated people,” she said, “and explore what drives them, what they dream and hope for and where their hearts are.”
The explosive dynamic between Mag and Maureen emanates from emotions and frustrations deep inside each of them.
“There are some really disturbing moments (in the play),” John said. “You want people to see that these characters are not monsters. They’re just extremely passionate.”
‘The Beauty Queen of Leenane’
When: Now in previews through June 28. Opens June 29 and runs through July 13. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays. (Also 7:30 p.m. July 2-3 and 7 p.m. July 8)
Where: Backyard Renaissance Theatre at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center, 930 Tenth Ave., downtown
Tickets: $18-$40
Phone: (760) 975-7189
Online: backyardrenaissance.com
Coddon is a freelance writer.