Step right up ladies and gentlemen and savour this heartfelt new play from Wexford playwright Billy Roche. Set in the early 60s, Lay Me Down Softly takes us into the burlesque world of the carnival and the boxing hall of Delaney's Travelling Roadshow with its intriguing cast of characters. There's the charismatic but dangerous Theo, the owner-cum-ringmaster; the gentle old prize-fighter Peadar, his worn out sidekick; the ferocious Dean and handsome Junior. With one old field after another, life on the road is tough. Just ask Lily, Theo's scornful lover. When young Emer shows up, however, everything changes... Like his other plays (including On Such As We, The Cavalcaders, Poor Beast In The Rain) in Lay Me Down Softly, Roche takes us back to a forgotten world and looks afresh at the familiar themes of love, loss and pain. He finds myth in the mundane and beauty in our all too human foibles. Lay Me Down Softly runs at The Peacock Theatre until December 13th. Tickets are priced between €15 and 22.
