“The Beauty Queen of Leenane” at Center Players (Freehold)

THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE is set in the mountains of Connemara, County Galway, in a town so blighted by rancor, ignorance, and spite that, as the local priest complains, God Himself seems to have no jurisdiction there. BEAUTY QUEEN tells the darkly comic tale of Maureen Folan, a plain and lonely woman in her early forties, and Mag, her manipulative aging mother, whose interference in Maureen’s first and possibly final chance of a loving relationship sets in motion a train of events that leads inexorably towards the play’s terrifying dénouement. The mutual loathing between ancient, manipulative Mag and her virginal daughter, Maureen, may be more durable than any love.