47 Roses

Draíocht Arts Centre, Blanchardstown, Dublin Jan 20 8pm 15/12 01-8852622 draiocht.ie; Viking Theatre, Clontarf, Dublin Jan 23-Feb 4 8pm 10 087-1129970 vikingtheatredublin.com

Adapted for the stage last year from his autobiographical memoir, Peter Sheridan's 47 Rosesis somewhere between a wry coming-of-age tale and a detective story. When his father dies, Sheridan follows clues towards a complicated relationship between his parents and another woman, Doris, who, for nearly 50 years, may have been something more than just a family friend.

Sheridan, an oddly self-effacing figure for a solo performer, disappears into his consummate storytelling, taking a distant fourth place to the central characters while evoking nostalgic glimpses of his family home in Saville Place. “Is that what we got a television for?” asks his mother, watching the Queen in 1960, “so that woman could come into my kitchen on a horse?”

We know where Sheridan’s sympathies lie, but he traces his father’s relationship with an almost Oedipal fascination (either that or he knows a good story when he finds one) and his journeys to Liverpool draw subtle parallels with an impossible relationship between England and Ireland – as though all personal stories are helplessly political.

Making a private story public requires tact, and, returning to the stage for a brief Dublin tour, Sheridan and director Maggie Byrne remain sensitive to everyone involved. Life is no bed of roses, they know, but nor do they push hard against its thorns.

Can't see that? Catch this:Jimmy Gralton's Dancehall, Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton