ONCE Phoenix Theatre

A dejected Irish busker mends the vacuum cleaner of a Czech pianist and within five days she has got him back on his feet and given his non-existent musical career a kick start. You may have seen John Carney’s bitter-sweet low-budget 2006 film. It has been given a new book by Enda Walsh and been turned into a friendly, if over-long, Irish mini-musical, which owes nothing to your usual big Broadway musical. Director John Tiffany sets all the action inside a Dublin pub. The audience is invited before the show starts to join the cast on stage and buy a beer. The cast are musicians as well as actors. The songs are by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. Three stand out: Falling Slowly, Gold (a capella) and When Your Mind’s Made Up. Tender, sad, understated, expertly co-ordinated, the show is likely to appeal, most of all, to Irish audiences.