Since the formation of a national theatre in 1904, Irish theatre as a genre has continued to serve the function of defining the nation. Using the stage as a mirror to reflect the nation back to itself, the stories embodied and staged in Ireland allow for audience members to see themselves more honestly and more fully. Yet, in 1992 the staging of Patricia Burke Brogan’s Eclipsed shocked the nation with the exposure of the church and state’s cruel actions toward Magdalene women, as the play marked the first look into what had previously been locked away. Nearly twenty years after Eclipsed, in 2011, ANU Productions created and produced Laundry, a site-specific work of theatre that not only allowed audience members to bear witness to the horrors of the Magdalene laundry but also to participate by hosting the production within a laundry building. Most recently, in 2021, Deirdre Kinahan’s The Saviour premiered with Landmark Productions, continuing a history of telling the story of Magdalene women onstage by highlighting the lingering trauma ever-present for survivors. This project uses these three plays to create a meaningful timeline to understand the activism fostered by theatre in the ongoing fight for justice for Magdalene women and their families. With each of the plays marking a distinct cultural and political moment in Ireland, this project traces the progression of social change and the shifts in conversation regarding the laundries. Most importantly, this project examines the unique function of theatre to shed light on Ireland’s Magdalene laundries, to demand social justice, and to directly resist the erasure of Magdalene laundries from Ireland’s collective memory.