#Leenane

[womblegrinch]

Paul Henry (1877-1958) - Near Leenane

Oil on canvasboard. Painted c.1935-38.

14 x 16 inches, 35.6 x 40.6 cm. Estimate: €80,000-120,000.

Sold Adam's, Dublin, 6 Dec 2023 for €80,000 + B.P.

[warrior-u-preservation]

Recreation of this thumb found on the official DA through the wayback machine.

[strazcenter]

Jobsite’s Love Affair With McDonagh

By David M. Jenkins In 2003 we staged our first play by London-bred Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, The Beauty Queen of Leenane. During that run, Straz Center then-CEO Judy Lisi made us an offer to become their resident theater company and effectively take over programming of the Shimberg Playhouse. Now that our residency is old enough to drink, we’re returning to this pitch-black tale as part…

[do-you-know-this-play]

[worldismyne]

Rose and her Bear Prince Gregor.

He stumbled into an old curse Leenan left behind by proposing to Rose on the family property. The spell is so old, they're not quite sure how to break it.

She kind of forgot to give him an answer in all the chaos.

[skyofdarkmatter42]

I'm reading the beauty queen of leenane and I can't stop imagining everyone as Colin Farrell I'm not even joking😭😭

[wisco-warrior]

Marja Leenan

[jordanraye47]

I really like her so im getting creative

you guys are really bad at this

[fjorests-of-wildemount]

Straight up Beauty Queen of Leenane in here 😮

[nagdabbit]

before i pass away, i thought of one you potentially haven't seen? In Bruges (2008, dir Martin McDonagh), it's a dark comedy film about two Irish hitmen who get stuck in the very dull place of Bruges, Belgium after a mission and shit goes tits-up when their boss arrives

OR alternatively, Face/Off (1997, dir John Woo) is a guilty pleasure film of mine bc it's just weird and a before-its-time concept done pretty well. Nick Cage plays an FBI Agent who gets plastic surgery to impersonate and get a hold of his son's killer, John Travolta and... well shit goes tits-up

anyway, good lucjk and don't die!

mokay i havemt seen face/off but eveyrome i kmow loves it so i gotta do it, BUT I FUCKIM LOVE MCDONAGH. MOVIESS PLAYS ALL OFNIT. fuck i8 love im bruges so much! the hangmen is ome of my favoirte plays, the beauty queem of leenane? FUCK ME UPP

[smodp]

Today, the life of Vincent de Paul is commemorated in the church’s calendar. Pray for the clergy and congregation at the church of St Vincent de Paul, in our Parish, and remember, with thankfulness, the life of Fr. Mark Leenane who died suddenly last July.

[warrior-u-preservation]

[do-you-know-this-play]

top girls by caryl churchill, some explicit polaroids by mark ravenhill, shopping and fucking by mark ravenhill, 4:48 psychosis by sarah kane, crave by sarah kane, burgerz by travis alabanza, womberang by sue townsend, ten tiny fingers nine tiny toes by sue townsend, black watch by gregory burke, thebans by liz lochhead, the james plays by rona munro, the cheviot the stag and the black black oil by john mcgrath, salt by selina thompson, hungry by chris bush, precious little talent by ella hickson, hot mess by ella hickson, the pillowman by martin mcdonagh, the beauty queen of leenane by martin mcdonagh.

just some of my faves off the top of my head! to add some contemporary british/irish writing to your repertoire hehe. this blog has made my theatre studies academic heart very happy!

thank you so much for all of these!!

[a-rlly-generic-account]

Thinking about The Beauty Queen of Leenane again

[worldismyne]

Bella's fairy form when she's not attacking people!

Her design is inspired by the Fox Glove flower (a poisonous plant).

According to the formspring fairies are a canon creature in the world or warrior u that can be dried out to use in potions. I immediately thought of my collection of dehydrated flowers and old pressed fairy books from when I was growing up.

I always loved fairies that were a little more inhuman in appearance.

She is inspired by a combination of British and Scottish fairy lore. (She’s a combination of a Pixie and Leanan Sidhe) I’m going with the term ‘changeling’ as it refers to human/fae hybrids and fae as a term for her kind since it’s a general term.

For this issue, fairies are emotion eaters; which is why plants inform their design. Rather than draining a human of their emotions, they try to do things to create an excess of this emotion (kinda like tending a garden). The flower they take after is affected by their preferred food. In an ideal world, house fairies try to cultivate admiration/happiness. However, the most common unions are between humans and fae that like to eat depression/anxiety. (Used as an explanation for why humans are warned to stay away from the fae). 

Gifts = Contracts. Accepting a gift/food without clarifying what is owed gives the fae a blank check they can collect on later. 

Never give your full name; it’s a means of summoning. Finn and Bella both go by nicknames for this reason.

Bella can not cross running water unless invited/carried. The mote around the family home keeps her trapped there.

Bella can not touch anything made of iron

Fairies can smell lies

(Apparently fairies hate “Thank yous” and apologies. Basically anything that sets up a debt) Bella will not overtly thank people or apologize; but will use extremely polite passive-aggression. Ex: “If I did anything to offend you, I regret that you feel ill toward me.” = “Sorry I hurt your feelings.” Ex: “You’re too kind.” = “Thank you.” 

In Finn’s family, house fairies preferred admiration or envy; and would give gifts/talents to the humans in exchange for being “trophy wives” It was a mutually beneficial arrangement for years until the world around them changed and suddenly all magic is considered ‘evil’. The human side of the family started carefully cutting out the fae side. Until the grandparents generation goofed real bad.

Since fairies seem to also be hunted by humans for things, I wanted to lean into this sort of parasite/vampiric vibe. As Bella stated, she's been forced to live off a poisonous diet of resentment and fear. It's helped her survive, but has corrupted her magic down to the core. Were she in a kinder environment, she would have grown into a different kind of flower.

There was a lot of headcanon lore that had to be cut from the comic for pacing. If you look at Finn's family tree, you can see quite a few names that are derived from plants. This is because, when the world was more magical, they had garnered favor from the fae. Though as unicorns, witches and fairies started to get hunted down, they cut ties with the fae and have been suffering ever since.

(He is distantly related to King Midas' daughter, who ran away from home after being rescued from being a golden statue. Gold is a prominent feature in anyone from the family with the potential for magic.)

All we had to work on for Finn's family was one painting a few formspring questions about Leenan's childhood. I knew for sure, since there were three sisters, that all of them had to be different in typical fairytale style. And that all of them had to have 'failed' the family in different ways. They are all different examples of how a toxic family can break you down.

THE CURSE (TM)

Senna, Freya and Leenan were the last to receive fairy gifts. Senna was given the gift of wisdom. Freya was gifted with fruitfulness and Leenan was given the gift of beauty.

Unfortunately, fairy beauty standards are different than human beauty standards.

So when her parents tried to reject the gift, all their gifts twisted into curses. Senna's a shrewish smartass that no one listens too. All of Freya has a huge family, but could only even have daughters and died trying to have a son. Leenan's siren-like beauty also marks her as uncanny and easy to spot in a crowd.

After rejecting the fairy gift, the magic side of the family put a ‘curse’ on the household. Unless a fae born heir becomes head of the family, the family name will die. 

It’s been 30ish years and two generations of only girls and it’s clear it will be the last if nothing changes because their surviving daughters are unmarried and plan to stay that way. And of their grandchildren the only ones within the Ashenburough bloodline are Bella (a changeling) who would marry out of the family anyway or Finn (disowned nobility) with 0 viable marriage partners both without fathers. 

Ways to break the “curse”.

Recognize Senna (Leenan’s sister) and her female “friend” as head of household; in which they could name an heir of their choosing.

Recognize Rose or Clarice as head of household, marrying them to a noble and passing the family title to a union outside of the family bloodline. (Senna's been pushing to make Rose the heir, since her parents have soft disowned her)

Recognize Bella as head of household; marrying her to a lesser noble who would be willing to take over the acreage (or lord forbid let her leave the house).

Admit they were wrong in disowning Leenan, restore her and Finn’s noble status. Either of them could carry on the bloodline and title.

Finn’s grandparents refuse to do any of these. Their pride will end the Ashenburough name.

FREYA'S CURSE

One last bit of lore that was alluded to, but not delved to deeply in. We showed Freya getting hit in the face with a potion, and in a different flashback that the potions Leenan was messing with were magical dyes.

IF Freya hadn't been so vain, the worst that would have happened was a weird discoloration to her face and eyes. But, being the carry know it all she was, she tried to fix it herself. The end result was something far worse than where she began, and Bella's abundant magic was also a consequence of this.

Her cursed design was inspired by my other favorite Cinderella variant All-Kinds-of-Furs. Only, in her case, it isn't a coat so much as a monstrous appearance. Rose's father was a hunter sent to slay the beast and fell in love with her instead. After such a humbling experience, she was actually a very kind step-mother to Rose and Clarice, perhaps too kind, as she favored her human daughters. Between the curse, her first marriage getting annuled and settling down with a peasant; she was arguably the biggest embarrassment of the family in the end.

She never did swallow her pride enough to seek out her sister for help though. In death her parents have tried to rewrite history. There is one tapestry in her room of her and her husband together after she was cursed, but all other images of her in the house are from when she still looked 'normal'.