NBT Bank Main Stage Series: Magdalen
On Saturday, Sept. 15, at 7 p.m., come witness the historical, heart-breaking, one-woman play “Magdalen” by Erin Layton at Arts at the Palace. Magdalen is a fictional exploration of the women and children who passed through the Magdalene Laundries as slave laborers to orders of nuns in mid-twentieth century Ireland, and the complicity of the church and society that tried to keep their stories hidden. Tickets are $20.
Magdalen made its original debut in New York City at FringeNYC in the summer of 2012 to sold out houses and rave reviews by the theatre community.
Since then, the play has been presented at Fringe Festivals in CA, Off-Broadway at Theatre Row through the United Solo Festival for two consecutive years in a row, 59E59 Theaters, SoHo Playhouse, internationally at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Lyth Arts Centre in the UK and special engagements in and around the Tri-State area, including venues in Westchester, Hofstra University, Lehman College and with the New York Irish Center in Long Island City.
Magdalen is the recipient of the Best Documentary Play Award (United Solo Festival 2013) and was shortlisted for the Amnesty International Award in 2015.
This poem was written in 1997 by a Magdalen Laundry adoptee: “We call to you because you are our brethren. In each other, we have found comfort, but our ears are keen in the silent air, and we know many more of us lay, all over the earth, forgotten. Use your breath, your precious life, and change the world’s ways for all of us. Know we were loved by at least one silent heart. Be strong, and love each other, and the world will surely change.”
Arts at the Palace is a community arts organization dedicated to presenting, developing and expanding the reach of the arts within the Central New York region. As an organization focused on inclusion, innovation and imagination, Arts at the Palace will nurture a vibrant arts community, foster artistic excellence, and inspire creative exchange through community connection and collaboration.
For more information about Arts at the Palace, or to purchase tickets, visit artsatthepalace.org or call 315.824.1420. AATP events are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature.