“The Beauty Queen of Leenane” (1996) is Martin McDonagh’s first play, it is part of The Galway Trilogy together with “A Skull in Connemara” and “The Lonesome West”. All three plays are set in the small village of Leenane, County Galway, and depict three villagers’ closely interwoven stories.

Set in the kitchen of a cottage in the west of Ireland, the play centers on the life of Maureen, a forty-year-old, and her brutal relationship with her mother Mag, a seventy-year-old. “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” is one of those plays which, through theatrical innovation, represent a critique of modern life. McDonagh explains the impact of isolation with different literary elements by the interaction between Maureen and Mag, how they are isolated with themselves, and with society.