sun 29/12/2024

Lay Me Down Softly, Tricycle Theatre | reviews, news & interviews

Lay Me Down Softly, Tricycle Theatre

Lay Me Down Softly, Tricycle Theatre

Billy Roche’s boxing play offers a couple of good rounds rather than a full match

Travelling, gentle man: Michael O’Hagan in ‘Lay Me Down Softly’Andrew Downes

Until quite recently, plays about sport were as rare as British Wimbledon winners. Then, over the past couple of years, came a whole slew of plays about various sports, led by punchy stories about boxing, from Roy Williams’s Sucker Punch to Bryony Lavery’s Beautiful Burnout. Now this growing list of recent fixtures is joined by Wexford-playwright Billy Roche’s bitter-sweet and humorous play, which originally premiered in Dublin in 2008 and opened last night in north London with several Roche veterans in its new cast.

Until quite recently, plays about sport were as rare as British Wimbledon winners. Then, over the past couple of years, came a whole slew of plays about various sports, led by punchy stories about boxing, from Roy Williams’s Sucker Punch to Bryony Lavery’s Beautiful Burnout. Now this growing list of recent fixtures is joined by Wexford-playwright Billy Roche’s bitter-sweet and humorous play, which originally premiered in Dublin in 2008 and opened last night in north London with several Roche veterans in its new cast.

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