PREPARATIONS are now feverish at the Gate for the Pinter Festival, which runs from April 7th-26th, and includes Harold himself playing in The Collection, and directing his new play, Ashes To Ashes. TCD will host a lecture programme in tandem with the festival, and one of these will be given by the eminent Guardian theatre critic, Michael Billington. The IFC will also screen a series of six Pinter films.

Before all that Donal O'Kelly's magnificent Catalpa, which won a Fringe First at Edinburgh last year, is opening at the Gate on March 19th, for nine performances. In a Red Kettle production, it toured Ireland in 1995, winning critical acclaim (including this writer's "Best Play of 1995" vote), but it failed to attract large audiences. This time around, don't fail to see this one man show which tells the story of an ill fated Fenian rebel ship in the last century - and, by the by, the story of the male ad venturing ego from The Odyssey on.