Lies Where it Falls

Written
and Performed by Ruairí Conaghan

Directed
by Patrick O’Kane

Award-winning Broadway, West End and Downton Abbey actor Ruairí Conaghan brings a story born from his
native South Derry to The Helicon stage.

When asked to play the part of Patrick Magee (the man who tried to
assassinate Margaret Thatcher and her government in Brighton in 1984) an act of
violence upon his own family when he was a child plays heavily with his
conscience despite being a tale of truth and reconciliation. However, it was in
his next role as The Player King in the most successful production of Hamlet in recent years that the true
consequence of his decision took its toll. The speech about King Priam of
Troy’s assassination that the Player King makes to a broken Hamlet, flares up
the memories of his family’s devastation and brings down on Ruairi a physical
and mental collapse that threatens his mortality. It is only through the love
and care of family and the community of theatre that he is brought back from
the brink.

In a time when the legacies of this island’s recent past have
never been more important to talk about, this unique one-person show, directed
by acclaimed actor Patrick O’Kane, uses storytelling, song, poetry, humour,
cinema and Shakespeare to tell Ruairí’s tale, leaving us with a sense that,
even through the worst of times, if we can find empathy, there is always hope.