Patricia Burke Brogan (playwright) Patricia is a painter, poet and playwright. Her etchings have won awards at Barcelona and at Listowel International Biennale 1982. Above the Waves Calligraphy, her collection of poems and etchings, and the script of her stage play, Eclipsed, were published by Salmon Publishing in 1994. Eclipsed has won many awards including a Fringe First at Edinburgh Theatre Festival 1992 and the USA Moss Hart Award 1994. By February 2006 there will have been 61 productions of the play on three continents. Another production in Dutch is planned for this Spring. Eclipsed and Stained Glass at Samhain, another play set in Killmacha Magdalen Laundry, have been translated into Italian and produced in Italy. Her newest play, Requiem of Love, premiered in The Town Hall Theatre, Galway in November 2005. Requiem of Love will be published by Wordsonthestreet Publishing in April 2006. Her collection New and Selected Poems will be published by Salmon Publishing later this year. Patricia received an Arts Council Bursary in Literature in 1993 and a European Script Writers' Fund in 1994. She received an Arts Council Bursary in Drama in 2005.
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Director's Notes

Plays are an ephemeral thing. A play comes to life for a tiny moment in time and after they are done, they live on only in the memories of the audience. Unlike a movie, they can’t be experienced again. Over the past ten years, Theatre Banshee’s put on a number of plays, doing our utmost to create entertainments worthy of a lasting memory in the minds of our audiences. We’ve brought to life bits of history, moments of tragedy and anguish, and a few good laughs to boot. Yet over the years, a tiny handful of people have come back to us time and time again, talking about their memories of “that play about the women in the laundry”.

In 1994 Leslie and I were flying to Ireland and Leslie started talking theatre with woman seated next. She said, “Oh, but the best play I ever saw was called Eclipsed. It’s about these seven women in this laundry...” Clearly it was a play we needed to read. From there we went on to track down the just-published play through Kenny’s Book and Coffee Shop in Galway, Ireland. Though it was Patricia Burke Brogan’s first play, we realized immediately that it was a work worthy of being brought to the stage.

Until we produced the show in 1995, Theatre Banshee was only an idea: to create the kind of theatre company that would entertain and challenge audiences and provide its artists with a safe and supportive home. We were fortunate that that first production was widely praised by critics and went on to win a number of awards. It helped our fledgling company carve out a niche in the densely populated world of Los Angeles small theatre. It became a part of our identity, the first mark of the company’s reputation.

The ensuing decade has seen a slow growth of Theatre Banshee. Once an amalgam of a few friends, now we have a permanent company. Once producing sporadically, we now produce regularly, taking on projects of increasing complexity for an expanding audience. For our tenth anniversary, we wanted to do something special. We decided to stage a new production of Eclipsed.

This incredible story, based on true events, is far more than an attempt to shine a light on a grievous misdeed of the church. Rather it is a tale of survival, moral quandaries, friendships, and the ability of women to persevere in the face of unthinkable circumstances. It embodies the Irish characteristic of enduring suffering through laughter, a bit of music and good craic. We thank you for sharing in Banshee’s 10^th anniversary hope this play about the women in the laundry will stick with you for years to come.

return to topDedicated to the children of Theatre Banshee: Aidan, Gabriel, Hannah Rose and Isaac — for putting up with your parents’ need to create theatre and for reminding us what it’s really all about.