EVENT: DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL BRAM STOKER FESTIVAL
The Stoker Fest returns to Dublin this Hallowe'en Weekend with gothic thrills for all ages. At the Abbey Theatre, Dracula: The Hunt offers a gripping staged reading of the novel’s final chapter, bringing Count Dracula’s epic showdown to life, while Stokerland transforms St. Patrick’s Park into a free, family-friendly Victorian funfair with spooky games, street theatre, and eerie entertainment. Elsewhere, Macnas bring their Halloween parade to the streets of the captal, and a screening of Japanese horror classic Kwaidan will be accompanied by a haunting live score, performed live by renowned musicians Matthew Nolan and Seán Mac Erlaine, accompanied by Japanese artist Tomoko Sauvage's water-based sound worlds. while actor Conor Lovett will perform a traditional Japanese Benshi-style, English-language narration (Various venues, Dublin, Friday 31st October - Monday 3rd November)
FILM: BUGONIA
The latest collaboration between director Yorgos Lanthimos, actor Emma Stone, and Irish production company Element Pictures, following their previous (Oscar-winning) collaborations on The Favourite and Poor Things, reunites them with Jesse Plemons, who starred in their last out-there envelope-pusher, Kinds of Kindness. A remake of the 2003 South Korean sci-fi black comedy Save the Green Planet!, Bugonia follows a corporate CEO (Stone) who is kidnapped by two men convinced she is an alien plotting to destroy Earth. As ever, expect the unexpected, driven by another utterly fearless performance from Stone (Cinemas nationwide)
OPERA: MADAMA BUTTERFLY
The incomparable Celine Byrne takes the lead in Irish National Opera's new staging of Puccini's masterpiece, returning to a role for which she earned widespread praise in INO's acclaimed 2019 production. With an iconic score, including Un bel dì and the Humming Chorus, this truly is one of opera’s great love stories; if you've never experienced live opera before, this is a great place to begin (Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin, Sunday 2nd - Saturday 8th November)
MUSIC: FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE
Perfectly timed for Halloween, Everybody Scream is the sixth studio album from Florence + the Machine and marks Florence Welch's return to the spotlight following a period of profound personal upheaval. Drawing inspiration from folk horror, nature, and seasonal change, it explores themes of life, death, and unseen forces. Welch describes it as "a horror film" in musical form, with a focus on darker subject matter throughout; it being a Florence record however, there's always a little light creeping in between those cracks (Now streaming)
SCULPTURE: LIAM ROE: A LIFE'S WORK
Irish wood sculptor Liam Roe (1935–2010) devoted his life to the craft of wood sculpture, working with native hardwoods to create human and animal forms that reflect Irish cultural memory, history, mythology, music, faith, and the natural world. A new major retrospective brings together a wide selection of Roe's creations, many of them never shown publicly before, and marks a landmark celebration of an unsung talent, bringing his singular body of work to a new generation (Pearse Museum, St. Enda's Park Dublin, until 1 February 2026)
POETRY: DEREK MAHON REMEMBERED
To mark the fifth anniversary of poet Derek Mahon's passing, The Gallery Press and University of Notre Dame present A Celebration of Derek Mahon, an event honouring one of Ireland's most revered poets featuring readings by literary greats including John Banville, Claire Keegan, Paul Muldoon, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Stephen Rea. Curated by Peter Fallon, the evening also includes rare video footage of Mahon reading his own work. His magnificent poetry, adaptations, and prose leave a profound literary legacy worth celebrating (Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin, 4th November)
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