Gig of the Week: A time-travelling new play that bends the laws of physics

Gravity (A Love Story)

February 16th-19th, Belltable, Limerick, 8pm (Saturday matinee 2pm) €24/€22/€20, limetreetheatre.ie
With a cast of characters that includes Joan of Arc, Charles Dickens and George Orwell, the time-travelling new play by Kerry writer Neil Flynn and directed by Conall Morrison bends the laws of physics to tell a contemporary love story with a cosmic twist in the tale. The action spans 400 years, but the core of the play goes even further back – all the way to the dawn of the universe, as evidenced by the gravitational wave detected by physicists in 2015. You may not be able to get your head around some of the scientific concepts, but you will laugh your head off at the sharp, witty particles of dialogue.

Tom Odell

February 15th, Ulster Hall, Belfast, 7pm, £31; February 16th, 3Olympia, Dublin, 7pm, €34.50, ticketmaster.ie
Before the pandemic and lockdown, Chichester singer-songwriter Tom Odell went through his own dark night of the soul, emerging in 2021 with his fourth album, Monsters, charting his struggles with anxiety and panic attacks, and sporting a darker, electropop hue. Now the Ivor Novello Award-winning artist is back on tour, and he'll be performing songs from Monsters along with acclaimed albums such as Long Way Down, Wrong Crowd and Jubilee Road. He'll definitely feel the love from his Irish fans at these Belfast and Dublin gigs.

Adam Kay: This Is Going To Hurt

February 14th, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin, 7.30pm, from €31, bordgaisenergytheatre.ie
Adam Kay's memoir of working on the frontline at the NHS has become a bestseller, and spawned a TV series starring Ben Whishaw as a harried junior doctor trying to juggle his messy personal life with the even messier demands of working long hours in a maternity ward. So it's safe to say Kay will have a few stories to tell, and the good news is that he's got an excellent bedside manner, so this show promises to be entertaining, funny and vomit-inducing all at the same time. Kay will also bring his musical talent to the show, performing some spoof songs that will have you reaching for the oxygen.

The Blindboy Podcast

February 16th, Ulster Hall, Belfast, 7.30pm, £28, ulsterhall.co.uk
With more than a quarter of a million weekly listeners to his podcast in Ireland, and more than a million monthly listeners worldwide, its safe to say that Blindboy Boatclub has reached far beyond his humble Limerick origins, and he no longer has to keep the horse outside. Blindboy is resuming his live podcast tour following pandemic postponements, and this gig in Ulster Hall is rescheduled from last October, with dates also scheduled for Castlebar, Co Mayo (February 25th), and Vicar St in Dublin (March 22nd, April 5th and 12th). Expect no-holds-barred chat on a range of topics, with mental health top of the list, and madness and mayhem not far behind. Mr Boatclub will be joined onstage by special guests on the night, so grab your shopping bag for a night of mindbending comedy and thought-provoking discussion.

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The Here Trio

February 17th-19th, Project Arts Centre, 7.30pm, €14/€18, projectartscentre.ie
Acclaimed choreographer Liz Roche tackles the tricky subjects of borders and the right to belong somewhere in this production featuring three dancers – Ryan O'Neill, Glòria Ros Abellana and Lucia Kickham – live on stage, and one - Sarah Cerneaux – captured on film. The Here Trio was first staged at the MAC in Belfast in early 2020, just as Brexit was bedding in, and now it comes to Dublin two years later, as the Northern Ireland protocol is under attack and the threat of a hard border on the island of Ireland becomes real again. The Here Trio also resonates in the wider world, where humans' sense of place is increasingly being challenged.

Mustn’t Forget High Noon, Christine, Twinkletoes

February 18th-March 12th, Abbey Theatre, Peacock Stage, 8pm (Saturday matinee 2.30pm), abbeytheatre.ie
These three monologues, written by Irish author Jennifer Johnson in 1995, muse on the personal costs of the conflict in Northern Ireland, and they get a timely restaging on the 100th anniversary of Partition. Billy (Charlie Bonner), Karen (Aoibhéann McCann) and Christine (Ali White) tell their harrowing stories of violence and tragedy, each story interlinking with the others. Artist Maree Kearns is in charge of the overall production, and each monologue is directed by one of the Abbey's resident directors Gea Gojak, Claire O'Reilly and Laura Sheeran.

Festival of Youth Orchestras

Saturday February 19th, National Concert Hall, 3pm, €20/€10/€7.50 (children under 17)/€45 (family ticket), iayo.ie, nch.ie
The Irish Association of Youth Orchestras bring their annual festival back to the NCH, and to say these young musicians are raring to go is an understatement. The youth orchestras will be coming from all corners of Ireland to perform classical and modern arrangements in this family-friendly event, and they'll be showcasing a range of styles and skills in a programme that includes works by Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky, favourite film music from Pirates of the Caribbean and The Hunger Games, and a traditional Irish work by Michael Rooney.

Smokie

February 20th, Vicar St, 7.30pm, €39.50, ticketmaster.ie
Back in the 1970s, you couldn't turn on your wireless without hearing the country-rock tones of Livin' Next Door to Alice, one of Smokie's many chart hits during that decade. And in the 1990s, you couldn't turn on the radio without hearing Roy "Chubby" Brown intoning "Who the f*** is Alice?" as he dueted with the band on a new version of their biggest hit. The band is still doing the circuit, but without original singer Chris Norman. Norman, who had a worldwide hit with Suzi Quatro with Stumblin' In in 1978, is doing his own tour in 2022, so the Smokie legacy is not set to burn out just yet.