The Beauty Queen (The Beauty Queen of Leenane) explores the complex relationship between
Maureen, an unmarried woman in her early forties, and her controlling, manipulative mother,
Meg. Maureen’s attempt to build an independent life is undermined by her mother’s
interference and suffocating attachment, leading to events that teeter between the tragic and
the comic, between bitter reality and the painful irony of fate.

Written in 1996, this is the first play by world-renowned British-Irish playwright Martin
McDonagh, famous for works such as The Pillowman and A Behanding in Spokane, as well as the
films In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The play earned him nominations
for the prestigious Tony and Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Play.

Both chillingly precise and darkly humorous, The Beauty Queen examines how love and control
can become an inescapable trap. It tells a story of generational conflict, loneliness, and the
longing for happiness—along with the inevitable price of our choices.

Director Boil Banov creates a psychologically deep production that presents audiences with a
world where the lines between love and hate, dreams and illusions, are painfully blurred.
Nomination for the national theatre award Icarus 2025 for best actor in a supporting role (Ivaylo
Gandev)