CAMILLE O’Sullivan is a bundle of energy. She talks a million miles an hour, her conversation punctuated by laughter.

For someone who has picked up awards on both sides of the Atlantic for both her singing and acting, she’s wonderfully self-deprecating.

On Monday, the enigmatic performer will bring her new show The Carny Dream to the Lowry. It will take the audience into a magical world inspired by the circus and carnivals.

“I haven’t been to the Lowry for a while,” said the French-Irish singer.

“We had a brilliant gig there a few years back and I’m looking forward to meeting that audience again.

“It’s always exciting to go back to places you have good memories of to unleash your madness.”

Camille’s shows are part performance art, part rock concert, part theatre. They feature her unique take on songs by artists such as Jacques Brel, Nick Cave and David Bowie

She may have sold out the Sydney Opera House and performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company but Camille admits that she still gets nervous before every performance.

“I always feel that it’s a different person who steps up on stage,” she laughed. “When I come off stage I haven’t got a clue what I’ve done, you’ve just to go for it. But then afterwards, I become totally Irish and embarrassed.

“I do think the whole thing about getting up in front of an audience is weird. It’s like being two different creatures almost. Up there on stage, my life is sorted. It’s certainly not sorted off stage. It’s like a kind of a spell comes over me.”

The dark and magical world of a carnival is one which would appeal to Camille.

“I always say there’s a crack in everything and that’s how the light gets in,” she said, “and that’s what this show is about in a way.

“All the singers I like such as Nick Cave have this left of centre aspect about them and I like becoming different people in the show.

“My interest really isn’t Camille O’Sullivan. It’s more about the fantasy that’s more interesting, I like going down the route of showing the darkness and the light which can be quite poignant and then at other times quite funny.

“People have likened the show to an emotional rollercoaster which I suppose it is.”

Camille’s story would make theatre show in its own right. She trained as an architect but a severe car accident prompted her to abandon that and become a singer instead.

“Lots of performers think what the hell made me get on stage,” she said. “But I think there is some kind of vocation to it - it pulls you back like a magnet.

“When you are on stage you feel alive on stage. There is such a satisfaction when it’s over; such a beauty in performing. It’s almost like your life may be a bit of a shambles but you suddenly have a light that makes sense on stage.”

David Bowie was a huge influence on Camille and that is reflected in the new show which also recognises two other great artists we lost last year - Leonard Cohen and Prince.

“They are all songs I love, I do feel they are like hymns.

“When you hear something that moves you so much, something in them makes me want to sing them. Of course it helps that I’m an emotional wreck,” she laughed.

For anyone thinking this may just be some kind of bland tribute, they obviously have never encountered Camille before.

She has incorporated David Bowie speaking, scores played backwards and even Marvin the Paranoid Android from Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy into the evening.

“When people come to a gig they are not sat in front of the TV,” she said. “It’s important that you communicate with them and perhaps that there is something a little unsettling too. The important thing is to be genuine.”

Camille O’Sullivan, the Lowry, Salford Quays, Monday, March 13. Details from 0843 208 6000