Name: The Marian Hotel
Start: 2024-10-05T20:00:00+01:00
Location: Playhouse Derry

Sole Purpose Productions presents
The Marian Hotel by Caitriona Cunningham
https://www.solepurpose.org/productions/the-marian-hotel
Directed by Patricia Byrne
Its 1979, Kitty is pregnant. She is on her own, not by choice.
She arrives in a mother and baby home. Nothing could have prepared her for this. The young women hold each other up with sharp, dark humour against the backdrop of the war in the North of Ireland.
The play is based on Caitriona Cunningham’s lived experience of being in Marianvale Mother and Baby home in Newry.It was developed over a year with Dramaturg Emily DeDakis and a cast of stellar local actors.It is a searing portrayal of a dark time in Irish history with a 70s/80s soundtrack. The Inquiry in the North of Ireland has just begun. This play is a call to all impacted to come forward and raise their voices so that they may never again be silenced and shamed for being human. The magnificent cast lead by Aoibh Johnson (The Daughters of Róisín 5 star reviews at Edinburgh Fringe) will take you on a journey that is mesmerising and intensely moving.
Don’t miss it.
There will be a post show Q&A with Professor Phil Scraton, the writer and director on Saturday 5th October. He will give a brief update on the Inquiry into mother and baby homes in Northern Ireland.
Phil Scraton is Professor Emeritus, School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast whose research includes: deaths in custody; prisons and incarceration; childhood, rights and justice. His numerous books and reports include Hillsborough: The Truth; The Violence of Incarceration; The Incarceration of Women; Truth, Acknowledgement and Accountability – Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses. Awarded the Freedom of the City of Liverpool, refused an OBE, and was castaway on BBC’s Desert Island Discs.
Supported by Arts Council NI Commissioning Programme, Heritage Fund, Foyle Foundation, Newry Down Mourne District Council.