Back in 2012, a gentle cobbler captured the affections of audiences up and down the country with his observations and his touching and genuinely funny tale of finding late-life love. The object of his affections? Kitsy Rainey – the formidable manager of the local football team.

Their story lies at the heart of ‘The Man in the Woman’s Shoes’, a one-man play by Mikel Murfi. ‘The Man in the Woman’s Shoes’ follows Pat Farnon as he walked the five miles from his cottage to town – breaking in Kitsy’s low-heeled shoes for her as he goes – and back again one day in 1978. Along the way he encounters a host of colourful local characters, and the audience comes to realise that Pat’s storytelling is in fact an internal monologue that he is sharing, as though in confidence. This man, who ceaselessly marvels at life’s many small wonders, has not spoken out loud since childhood.

The play deservedly enjoyed sell-out runs and won rave reviews in Ireland, the UK and the US, as well as multiple awards, including The Zebby (Irish Writers Guild) Award for Best Theatre Script. But it is Murfi’s astounding versatility, his ability to bodily and vocally inhabit characters as different as night and day – as well as bees, birds, pigs and even a dying turkey – that had theatre goers everywhere on their feet. That, and the show’s reminder to us all: Stop, smell the roses and see the good.