Of the sackful of awards Irish playwright Martin McDonagh has clutched, several have been for The Beauty Queen of Leenane, his 1996 black comedy which claimed an Olivier Award and, when it went to Broadway two years later, four Tony Awards. The accolades will mean nowt for those disheartened by bleakness, but this tale of a lonely virgin spinster, desperate to escape the suffocating clutches of the piss-stained cottage she shares with her poisonous mother, invariably makes for affecting stuff.

Little Theatre until Sat 4th