THE story of her great-grandmother’s brave quest to find work inspired Siobhan Nicholas’s new play, Dolce Via. In fact, it stems from an interestingly diverse mix of influences – Fellini films, circus acts and variety performers among them.

Not least is the old family yarn, recounted to Nicholas as a child, in which her great-grandmother travelled by foot across part of Northern Ireland to visit a hiring fair.

“She was from a farming family and they were very poor,” says Nicholas. “In Ireland, hiring fayres continued into the 20th century and people would basically sell themselves to the local landowners as workers.

“Eventually, she became a housekeeper to my great-grandfather who was older but plucked up the courage to ask her to marry him.”

Nicholas also researched the history of variety and met with performers to create Dolce Via for the touring theatre company Take the Space.

It tells the story of the Great Tourrinos, who are reunited for one evening only, many years after tragedy broke up their act and ended their life on the road.

Nicholas feels she created the 75-minute two-man show for her co-star Chris Barnes. The actor, who appeared in this week’s episodes of Waking the Dead and is also performing Take the Space’s Hanging Hooke at Southport Arts Centre on October 8, spent two years with Barnum and Bailey’s Circus when he was young.

“I don’t think there’s another actor in the country who could play the part of Freddie in Dolce Via,” says Nicholas. “It calls for him to unicycle, breathe fire and also act really well.”

She herself trained in mind reading for the play, but has resisted attempting any circus tricks.

“I have so much respect for variety performers that would never presume to be able to do what they did in such a short period of time,” she says.

“I see the show as paying tribute to them as well as providing the audience with great entertainment and an interesting story.”

While Nicholas admits to feeling a little schizophrenic when dividing her time between writing plays and starring in them, she is glad to be able to work on her own material.

“I’ve done TV and films and repertory theatre, but this is what I really love.”

DOLCE VIA is at the Unity Theatre on Saturday.