The Casket of Passing Fancy is not a play, and it’s not, in any conventional sense, improv. It’s a hyper-participatory extravaganza of perpetual surprise, culminating in a theatrical experience that, like a psychedelic Choose Your Own Adventure story, tailors to each individual audience member’s taste, curiosity, or hunger....

Playwright Martin McDonagh loves making fun of America’s fascination with Ireland, and people in Austin love producing and attending his plays about Ireland—wherein he makes fun of America’s fascination with Ireland. O, the irony. But this city’s latest production of McDonagh’s work, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, staged by Renaissance Austin Theatre and the VORTEX Repertory Company, isn’t likely to end this vicious cycle. ...