SINGER-SONGWRITER

The Tallest Man on Earth

Vicar St, Dublin 7.30pm #27 vicarstreet.ie

By this stage, we have adopted Swedish Kristian Matsson as one of our own. For good reason, too, as he is more than adept at blending typical singer- songwriter tropes with stirring pragmatism – we love that kind of thing, don't we? Latest album, Dark Bird Is Home, will no doubt be rifled.

THEATRE

Star of the Sea

Hawkswell Theatre Oct 21 8pm €18/€16 hawkswell.com

Moonfish Theatre’s imaginative and sensitive adaptation of Joseph O’Connor’s novel is now nearing the end of its own voyage, debuting last year at the Galway Arts Festival, and concluding a well-deserved tour of the country. Fluently bilingual and deeply considered aesthetically, the production centres on the course of an 1847 famine ship, whose passengers – a maid, a ruined lord, a murderer – drag with them the trials of Ireland towards the new world. Their stories, separate and entwined, are realised through a series of flashbacks and accompanied with a graceful design of projections, music, movement and live sound effects: there is a great pleasure in witnessing its construction. Although freely adapted by the cast, the production is reverential to the novel, including as many plot lines as possible, sometimes at the expense of emotional investment – a novel can ration out pathos more evenly than two hours of stage time. But the suppleness of its creation is the real star here, and it makes for an engaging and thoughtful depiction of a fateful journey.

COMEDY

Jason Manford

Black Box Theatre, Galway €30 Also Thurs vodafonecomedycarnival.com

Irish blood, English heart, Jason Manford is almost a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. Support on the night comes from Foil, Arms and Hog and Eric Lalor.