Magdalena the Musical Premiere
Honorary Consul Rombouts attended the premiere of the musical 'Magdalena' in Antwerp
The Honorary Consul Yves Rombouts was pleased to attend the premiere of Magdalena, a musical (in Dutch) based on the prizewinning documentary The Forgotten Maggies by Steven O'Riordan.
Magdalena takes you to twentieth-century Ireland and tells the harrowing true story of 30,000 young women who were forcibly dumped in convents, where they forced into labour in harsh conditions for days, from dawn till dusk.
The last monastery only closed its doors in 1996, and since then several mass graves containing hundreds of babies have been discovered. Children who were born in the monasteries …
In Magdalena we meet Rose, Emma and Sarah, three girls who are each sent to a convent for a different reason. Rose has an unwanted pregnancy, Emma has a boyfriend, which her mother cannot tolerate, and Sarah's father can barely make ends meet and sees no other option than to send his daughters to the convent.
In the convent, Sister Margaret is in charge. She wages a reign of terror there, and all the girls who end up there break sooner or later. Until Emma's boyfriend Aeden appears at the monastery gate...
An important story told in a beautiful way.