A heartfelt slice of life in small-town Ireland, brimming with passions and all-too-human foibles, from the author of the well-loved Wexford Trilogy.

Set in rural Ireland of the early 1960s, Lay Me Down Softly introduces the colourful if seedy burlesque that is Delaney's Travelling Roadshow – and in particular its boxing hall, where prizefighter Dean takes on all comers on a nightly basis. That is, until a challenge from a professional fighter upsets the apple-cart…

Billy Roche's play Lay Me Down Softly was first performed at the Abbey Theatre Peacock, Dublin, in 2008.

'Wry, humane, questing, elegiac... unmissable' — The Times