Our season commenced with the Boston-area premiere of The Beauty Queen of Leenane, a black comedy that won four Tonys on Broadway in 1998. 

Set in the mountains of Connemara, The Beauty Queen of Leenane 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 final conclusion.

"a chilling Gothic tale...the Súgán production is ultimately unnerving; in the end, the rocker remains, and it's no comfort to know that someone is there, keeping the homefires burning" - Boston Globe

"beyond-expectations production values are just the crowning touches to a splendid Beauty Queen" - Boston Irish Reporter

"As black as it seems on the page, The Beauty Queen of Leenane takes on some color - and heart - in a really good production which is what it gets from the Súgán Theatre Company in its Boston debut" - Boston Phoenix
 
 

This Lime Tree Bower by Conor McPherson
February-March 2001 
Directed by Carmel O'Reilly
New England premiere
Cast:  Ciaran Crawford, Nathaniel Gundy, Aidan Parkinson Design: J. Michael Griggs, Jeff Benish, Julie Heneghan

Carmel O'Reilly, 2001 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director, Small Company

In This Lime Tree Bower, three young men from a Dublin seaside town tell their overlapping recollections of one fateful night that included a rape, an embarrassing episode at a college lecture, and a robbery done for retribution that ties it altogether.

"superb production... McPherson's language ranges from common conversation to lyrical poetry, and the Súgán production brings home the beauty of both" - Boston Herald

"The production is pitch-perfect, with the actors striking the right balance between melancholy and machismo ... O'Reilly and the actors find the poetry in this slim, picaresque play" -  Boston Globe

"the pacing and the poetic quality of the language make you hang on the words ... Parkinson (gives) a masterful performance that elevates the temperature of the production" - Boston Phoenix

"Watching a McPherson play at the Súgán Theatre is to be bewitched:  by the way director Carmel O'Reilly brings the work to life, by the playwright's canny view of human nature and by the actors' remarkable rightness for their roles" - boston.citysearch.com
 
 

Trust by Gary Mitchell
April-May 2001 
Directed by Carmel O'Reilly
East Coast premiere
Cast:  Doug Marsden, Helen McElwain, Billy Meleady, Shawn Sturnick, Alex Martinez Wallace, Debra Wise, Joseph Zamparelli, Jr
Design: Peter Wilson, Neil Anderson, Sarah Chapman. Mike de Almeida

Billy Meleady, 2001 IRNE Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Play, Small Company

Our season concluded with a taut thriller from Gary Mitchell, an exciting young playwright from Northern Ireland.

Geordie is the district commander of a Protestant paramilitary group in Belfast.  However, when you are given the role of guardian of the community and you do everything you can to protect it, sometimes you forget that which is most important of all - your family.

"Playwright Gary Mitchell lets Trust unfold like the petals of a flower.  But the nectar inside this flower is poisonous, all the more deadly because of its position at the heart of the blossom.  The Súgán Theatre Company and director Carmel O'Reilly offer a sharp, smart production of Trust, building the tension slowly before unleashing Mitchell's devastating climax.... the beauty of Mitchell's Trust is that, despite the compelling plot complications, the story is ultimately about the disintegration of the most basic human emotions" - Boston Herald

"a wonderfully crafted script, played to the hilt" - Boston Globe
 
 

All of this season's performances took place at the Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street, Boston.
 

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