A harrowing play about the Magdalenes, the women who were confined to the “penitent women’s laundries” in Ireland from the 1850’s to the 1990’s. Author Patricia Burke Brogan was the first to bring to light the story of the women who were incarcerated in the Magdalene laundries in Ireland. After the potato famine of the 1840’s, the church, in conjunction with the state, set up these facilities to house and care for “fallen” women. The power of the Catholic Church was so strong that parents, consumed with shame, sent their daughters away, ostensibly for the good of their souls.