Druid, which made its acclaimed UMS debut in 2011 with The Cripple of Inishmaan, returns with a new production of Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy The Beauty Queen of Leenane (pronounced lee-NAHN). As tragically funny as it is horrific, this brilliantly subversive play takes place in an economically depressed Irish village in the early 1990s, with a vicious and relentless war of wills between a manipulative, aging mother, Mag, and her plain and lonely 40-year-old daughter, Maureen. After years of caring for her ungrateful mother, Maureen has little hope of happiness or escape, especially after Mag ruins her first, and perhaps only, chance of a loving relationship. This is confrontational theater at its most potent, with characters locked in mortal combat and mutual loathing. This new production casts Marie Mullen in the role of the scheming mother; she won a Tony Award for the role of the daughter in the 1996 Broadway production.