High critical acclaim for Joe Hill-Gibbins's revival of 'The Beauty Queen of Leenane' at the Young Vic

Genesis Fellow Joe Hill-Gibbins has received high critical acclaim for his revival of Martin McDonagh’s celebrated play, The Beauty Queen of Leenane.

The Beauty Queen Of Leenane established McDonagh's reputation on its premiere at the Royal Court in 1996, winning him Evening Standard and Critics' Circle awards and a Laurence Olivier Award nomination. It subsequently transferred to Broadway where it won a Tony Award for Best Play.

The production at the Young Vic marks the play's first major London revival since its premiere run at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in 1996. Beauty Queen is the first play in McDonagh's Leenane Trilogy, which also includes A Skull in Connemara and The Lonesome West.

Press acclaim for Joe Hill-Gibbins’s production:

“***** [5 Stars] So vividly does director Joe Hill-Gibbins realise this scenario that the enrapt first-night audience emitted a panto-like chorus of spontaneous cheers and groans, as they willed Maureen on to the sort of happy ending that doesn’t tend to win the hatfuls of awards Beauty Queen has. At just £19.50 for a ticket, this is surely the best deal in town.” – London Evening Standard

“**** [4 stars]…this is beautifully realised in Joe Hill-Gibbins's production which plays expertly on the emotions.” – The Guardian

"**** [4 stars]...watching Joe Hill-Gibbins's richly enjoyable production of McDonagh's debut drama 'The Beauty Queen of Leenane', I am happy to concede that this first piece, in which he laid out his stall of tricks, is much more than an artful excercise in meta-theatrical cleverness." - The Independent

"**** [4 stars] The four players, and Joe Hill-Gibbins as director, take on a challenge in accommodating both the jokes and the tragedy. Measure their triumph in breaths around you on the steep raked benches: plentiful aahs of sympathy or gasps of dismay." - The Times

"**** [4 stars] McDonagh’s writing and Hill-Gibbins’ staging alike know the value both of charm and shock, of suddenness and exquisite inevitability, whether the last concerns Maureen’s dashed hopes or Mag’s chamber pot emptied into the sink." - Financial Times

"**** [4 stars] Joe Hill Gibbins’s outstanding revival, with a superbly bleak and atmospheric cottage design by Ultz, features a poster bearing the words: “May you be half an hour in heaven afore the devil knows you’re dead”, but the two main characters already inhabit a hell of their own creation." - The Daily Telegraph

“Joe Hill-Gibbins’ revival serves the playwright admirably, starting so lightly that the audience is lulled into a complacent expectation of predictable ethnic humour that makes the progressive shocks all the more powerful.” – The Stage.co.uk

“It takes a brave director to revive a relatively recent play that has had such an impact but Joe Hill-Gibbins has always been adventurous and on this occasion surpasses his previous achievements with a production that is close to perfect.” – The British Theatre Guide

To book tickets, please go to the play's page on the Young Vic website.

The Genesis Fellowship at the Young vic

The Genesis Fellowship is a two year grant that enables its recipient to work closely with artistic director David Lan as they continue to develop their craft as a theatre director.  Joe Hill-Gibbins is the first Genesis Fellow appointed at the Young Vic Theatre.

To read more about the Genesis Foundation’s partnership with the Young Vic, please click here.