MAGDALEN Encore Performance Set for Franklin Stage Company

Franklin Stage Company will present an encore performance of award-winning solo show Magdalen by actress and playwright Erin Layton July 25–27 at Chapel Hall in Franklin, NY. The piece, written by Ms. Layton and developed and directed by Julie Kline, is a fictional exploration of the women and children who passed through the real-life Magdalene Laundries as slave laborers in twentieth century Ireland, and of the complicity of church and government officials in hiding their tragic stories. The show was first presented at FSC’s as part of their 2017 season. “We are honored to bring Erin’s work back to our stage,” said FSC Artistic Director Patricia Buckley. ’Her show explores all facets of the of the Magdalene Laundries, and creates sensitive portraits of the brave survivors who spoke out and brought their truth to light.” 

A subject of such recent films as The Magdalen Sisters, directed by Peter Mullen, and Philomena, starring Judy Dench, the Magdalen Laundries mark a painful chapter in Ireland’s history. Started in the late 18th century as a home for “fallen women,” they became a state sanctioned source of free labor, run by religious orders that engaged in widespread abusive treatment of the young women who passed through them. In the nearly 200 years the Laundries were in operation, thousands of girls were consigned to them, not only for getting pregnant, but for being “troublesome,” mentally ill, or even too beautiful. Children born to the inmates were adopted out in secret, leaving their birth mothers unable to track them. Although most Laundries closed down in the latter 20th century, prompted by changing sexual attitudes, the last Laundry closed in 1996 and in 2013 the state issued a formal apology and set up a fund for survivors.

Erin Layton is a Brooklyn-based solo performing artist, producer and published playwright. Her plays include an adaptation of The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Let Us Go Then, You And I, Weird Sisters, Pitch, and Pearl Merchant, among others. She has worked as an actress in New York and at several regional theaters including Actors Theatre of Louisville and St Louis Shakespeare Company. 

Magdalen, Erin's first full-length solo play, has been presented at The Kumble Theater, New York City Irish Center, the American Irish Association of Westchester, Lehman College and Hofstra University. It has toured nationally and internationally to wide-acclaim. The UK’s Public Review said, “The highest level of performance. Exact, sincere, riveting.” The Huffington Post called it, “The performance of the (NY Fringe) festival.” The show won Best Documentary Script, at the 2013 United Solo Festival, and was shortlisted for an Amnesty International Award.