MAGDALEN WRITER/PERFORMER ERIN LAYTON on the LATEST MASS GRAVE DISCOVERIES in IRELAND

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Artist Without Walls’ member Erin Layton has written and performs in the award-winning one person play, MAGDALEN, a multi-character drama about the women and girls who were sent to “wash away their sins” in commercial laundries run by nuns in twentieth century Ireland. We asked Erin to comment on the recently discovered unmarked graves of babies and children in Tuam, Ireland

 

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In 1993, the bodies of 155 women who had died in a commercial laundry in Dublin, Ireland were exhumed from unmarked graves. I stumbled upon an article about this gruesome discovery in the initial stages of research for my play in 2010. One day, over lunch with an accomplished playwright friend, I told him what I was intending to write about but didn’t know where to start. Then I told him about the mass graves of unidentified women. 

 

“Are you serious?” He said. “That’s the event. That’s your play.” 

 

And the first draft was written. 

 

IMG_0043When I read the recent news about the mass graves of 800 children found in County Galway on the grounds of a Home for unwed mothers, I wasn’t shocked. If the Catholic Church could justify the unjustifiable act of casually discarding the Laundry workers into unmarked graves, surely they would do the same to the weaker, more vulnerable class – their children. And there are more – hundreds if not thousands more stories like these in Ireland that have not hit international press. This is not an isolated incident.

 

 

As the playwright and performer of MAGDALEN, I never want to be perceived as capitalizing upon some major international news headline. I wrote my play because my heart is and continues to be drawn to the lives of the thousands of girls and women who perished inside the Laundry walls – and many who survived and are alive today. They are the reason I am so deeply committed to telling this story. My play is for them and now, it is also for their children. 

 

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th-66On Thursday evening, October 2 at 7:30PM. Erin’s MAGDALEN will be presented through the United Solo Festival, the world’s largest solo theatre festival at Theatre Row: 410 West 42nd Street, New York City. Tickets are available at the Theatre Row Box Office and online through Telecharge at www.telecharge.com. You may also call Telecharge at 212-239-6200. When placing your reservation, please provide: the FESTIVAL name (United Solo Theatre Festival), the name of the THEATRE (Theatre Row – The Studio Theatre), and the specific DATE/TIME and SHOW (October 2, 7:30PM, MAGDALEN).

 

Erin is an incredibly  talented artist. We highly recommend this compelling, topical show.