Eclipsed

Outlined by a present-day prologue and epilogue, the play is set in 1963 in a convent laundry at St. Paul’s Home for Penitent Women in Killmacha, Ireland. Eclipsed explores the poignant and sometimes humorous story of young pregnant, unwed mothers consigned to work as ‘penitents’ in church-run laundries. Supervised by nuns, these women were treated as virtual slaves and their infants were forcibly put up for adoption. After seeing the goings on in the laundries as a young novice, playwright Patricia Burke Brogan decided to highlight the plight of these women. Eclipsed was one of the first plays to tell the story of the Magdalene Laundries.

Established in 2019, The Ray Leonard Players was founded to honour the legacy of the late, great director Ray Leonard, who was synonymous with drama in Claremorris throughout his life. Ray was a director, producer and mentor who made an outstanding contribution to drama, musicals and stagecraft. In keeping with Ray’s deep sense of community the group have formed a unique collaboration with Claremorris Men’s Shed who have designed and built the set for this play. In 2023 the group qualified for the All-Ireland Confined Finals with ‘The Kings of the Kilburn High Road’, and in December 2023 they won the All-Ireland One-Act Confined Finals with ‘A Night Without Stars’.