A performance by the award-winning Kabosh Theatre Company from Belfast will be among the main attractions at the first Samhain Festival to be held in Manorhamilton from October 22nd-30th.
Kabosh, which won the 1998 Dublin Fringe Festival Double Award, will stage Romeo and Juliet to mark the 400th anniversary of the play. An "innovative and accessible" approach, with an all-male cast, is promised.
The Samhain festival has grown out of the Halloween Spectacular held in Manorhamilton last year, and will start next Friday with the Dublin-based Two Chairs Theatre Company performing an evening of storytelling and music.
Also included in the festival is a storytelling and music workshop for children, a ceili in the Glens Centre on Sunday and a children's show on Monday.
On Tuesday, October 26th, in a double bill, Country Leitrim Youth Theatre will perform Magh Tuartha which will be followed by a storytelling session with Eddie Linehan from Co Clare and John McGovern from Kiltyclogher.
Information from The Glens Centre on (072) 55833.
Playwright Conor McPherson is among the speakers at this year's M.J. MacManus Writers' and Arts Day at the Bush Hotel in Carrick-on-Shannon on Saturday, October 23rd. This is the fifth year of the event organised by the Carrick-on-Shannon and District Historical Society.
McPherson wrote the feature film I Went Down, and his plays include The Weir. He has won a number of international awards, including the Laurence Olivier Award for best play in 1999.
Other speakers include the writer Brian Leydon; Andy McGovern, who has motor neurone disease but who this year published his first book, They Laughed at This Man's Funeral; RTE journalist Carole Coleman; Ms Lilian Roberts Finlay; Ms Sylvia Dawson and Mr P. McHugh. There will also be an exhibition of paintings by local artists. Information from 07821096/20119.
The Charles Macklin Autumn School takes place this weekend in his home town of Culdaff on the Inishowen peninsula in Co Donegal. This is the 10th year of the school, established to highlight the life and work of the playwright and actor who was born at the end of the 17th century.
After abandoning his real name, Cathal MacLochlainn, and his Catholic background when he emigrated to England, he played more than 160 major roles on the London stage. Events include The Macklin Debate on the theme "A Question of Identity", art exhibitions, drama, and a young scriptwriters competition. Information on (077) 79104.