Van Morrison is set to open up, at the behest of Ian Rankin

Stop. The. Presses. Van Morrison graces the stage of Dublin’s Olympia theatre on December 10th in two guises: that of performer and that of public interviewee.

Frankly, we’re not sure which we’re looking forward to the most – the man’s gigs can range from the sublime to the oh so so, but we’ve never seen him being publicly interviewed before, so that alone could be worth the price of the ticket.

Subtitled Lit Up Inside (the title of his recently published book of selected lyrics, a slim volume that has been on the receiving end of at least one vituperative critique), the evening is in two parts.

The second part is the gig with a four-piece band; the first segment sees Morrison being interviewed by Scottish writer Ian Rankin across a Q&A session that lasts up to 30 minutes.

Interspersed with the conversation will be readings of Morrison lyrics by poet Michael Longley, and an overview of his career by Dr Eamonn Hughes.

Something of a night, then, for Morrison fans, but it's instructive to know that this event, while billed as a "once-off for Dublin", has been staged before (at London's Lyric Theatre last month, where Edna O'Brien read Madame George as a poem).

Reports of Morrison relaxing into the interview (genially and knowledgeably probed by Rankin) have filtered through: he smiles, he laughs, he talks of his love of music.

One question: for the Dublin gig, surely music lover Roddy Doyle should have been asked to be the interviewer? After his Roy Keane book, he’d be used to dealing with mavericks renowned for fractious behaviour.