Irish Times critics review David Adams at Trinity College and the latest from the Fringe Festival in Dublin.

David Adams (organ)
Trinity College Chapel

The last time the complete organ works of Bach were presented in Dublin was 1985, in St Michael's Church Dún Laoghaire. Pipeworks (the Dublin International Organ Festival) is organising this latest presentation, in a series of 16 one-hour concerts on successive Tuesdays and Thursdays in the chapel of Trinity College Dublin.

How does one arrange programmes of music that can be bewildering in its variety and complexity, yet which also consists of groups of works precisely defined and differentiated by genre, style and purpose? Pipeworks's solution is elegant - though it is also demands much of the arrangers' imagination. Seven organists each play at least one recital that is built either around works that Bach assembled as a collection, or around a theme such as Easter, or the composer's interest in Italian music.

This opening recital by David Adams vindicated their method. Titled Orgelbüchlein 1, it featured 17 of the 46 chorale preludes that Bach placed in that "little organ book" around 1722.

The preludes were played in two groups, neatly organised so that successive pieces were in related keys; and each group was topped-and-tailed by a larger work. The two halves of the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor BWV542 opened and closed the concert (Bach sometimes "split" his larger works thus), and the groups of preludes were separated by the Trio Sonata in C minor BWV526.

David Adams's long experience in historically informed performance practice showed in every second of this recital. His playing epitomised stylishness without pretension, virtuosity without ego, and a purely musical approach that illuminated the character of each piece. From the mournful chromaticism of Das alte Jahr vergangen ist BWV614 to the merrily dancing energy of the concluding fugue, everything felt just right.

Series continues at 7 p.m. on Tuesday with Raymond O'Donnell and on Thursday with David Leigh.

Martin Adams

Fringe Festival

MurMurous Silence ***
The Larkin, Liberty Hall

Colonised by Japan, bullied by Mainland China and propped up by the United States, for generations, Taiwan has struggled with a fractious independence. Without burdening her graceful and personal performance with heavy political allegory, Hsin-I Lin tells the story of her mother and Lin's own battle for independence.

Between monologue, dance and sound-installation, relations shift shape and political ties redrafted while Lin's stagecraft presents simple gestures and simpler props capable of donning a delicate symbolism - a red sheet represents a wedding veil, a caesarean birth, an infant, or uncompromising restraints.

Anchih Tsai's ever-present sound design reverberates with muffled, womb-like echoes, her cultural quotations slipping easily into experimental noise art. Both performances are intriguing separately, yet without striking a sensitive balance, they remain separate.

The work of a young artist, Lin's monologue ultimately becomes too self-involved, distancing us with unresolved filial grief.

Nonetheless, As-If Productions are minting a nuanced vocabulary of performance.

• Runs until Sunday

Peter Crawley

Adventures in New Dance Performance ****
Arthouse, Temple Bar

Since some improvised performances can be toe-curling, it was nice to be able to agree an early comment by dancer Cindy Cummings that "this music makes you want to point your toes".

My toes were happily stretched for the rest of Rebus's performance and in spite of the inevitable unevenness in improvised performance, Cummings, Maggie Harvey and Nick Bryson maintained a constant rhythm of energy and ideas, many prompted by the elevator, staircase and hidden spaces of the derelict Arthouse.

Although some contact work looked awkward, the three filled out the loose structure in individual ways: Harvey clearly highlights inner connections and seeks out flows of energies between twisted limbs, whereas Cummings seeks to elongate every impulse physically, verbally and dramatically.

Nick Bryson, particularly in his solo, was alone in finding moments of real release bordering on the uncontrollable. Neil C Smith's live-mixed soundscore sometimes suggested, sometimes reflected but always kept momentum behind the movement.

• Run concluded

Michael Seaver

XXX Anonymous ****
Andrews Lane Studio

This Theatre Lab production of George Iliopoulos's play races along so enjoyably that it is almost over before the question of what it is trying to say about its subject matter arises.

In a series of dialogues and monologues, punctuated by blasts of song from the likes of Lou Reed, Morrissey, Tom Jones and Madonna, the four performers (two men, two women, all excellent) detail the sexual preferences and fantasies of a wide repertoire of characters.

The tone is generally comic, sometimes bleak, though the brevity of the scenes means that darker themes cannot be fully explored and that cliché becomes a tempting shorthand. Still, the staging is fluent and there are enough interesting ideas and characters in the play to have kept the attentive audience absorbed beyond its abrupt ending.

• Runs until Saturday (1 p.m. and 8.15 p.m.)

Giles Newington