ARDHOWEN Theatre welcomes some old friends back to the stage this week with performances from Smackee with ‘Memories Are Made of Hits’ tonight (Thursday) and Mick Flavin on Friday. Exciting new traditional band Beoga perform on Saturday.

MEMORIES ARE MADE OF HITS Barry Walker’s sensational showgroup Smackee return to Ardhowen tonight at 8pm with ‘Memories are Made of Hits’ taking a nostalgic journey through musical memories from the 50s and 60s.

The show will include many of the hits from those two decades featuring music from artists such as ‘Elvis’, ‘Buddy Holly’, ‘Billy Fury’, ‘Del Shannon’, ‘Connie Francis’, ‘Dusty Springfield’, ‘The Shadows’ plus many more, taking us back to a time when the hit parade was King.

MICK FLAVIN AND FRIENDS Nicknamed “The Gentle Giant of Country Music” his stylish songs and roguish persona have created the legend that is Big Mick Flavin. A robust vocalist capable of conveying startling emotion and making deceptively ordinary characters shine, he boasts a catalogue of hit singles that includes ‘The Old School Yard’, ‘Try It You’ll Like It’, ‘Wild Flowers’ and of course his monster hit single ‘When I Lay Me Down’. Mick’s line up of friends will be compere Gary Wilson and Traditional Country singing legend John Glenn singing his hits ‘Keep On The Sunnyside’, ‘Let’s Turn Back The Years’ and more. Fermanagh Voluntary Welfare Support Group presents ‘Mick Flavin And Friends’ on Friday at 8pm.

BEOGA On Saturday at 8pm are Moving On Music presents Beoga, a five-piece band based in Antrim. Beoga, Gaelic for ‘lively’, create a unique sound featuring the twin duelling accordions of Damian McKee and multi-instrumentalist Seán Óg Graham, pianist Liam Bradley, four times All-Ireland bodhrán champion Eamon Murray and Niamh Dunne, one of Ireland’s premier young talents, on vocals and fiddle.

Beoga’s support act, Ceolmar are the latest young Trad group to emerge on the scene. Hailing from Fermanagh and Tyrone, Ceolmar consist of: Martin Treacy, Accordion/Melodeon; Gareth Maguire, Vocals/Bodhran; James McCaffery, Flute/Whistle; Ciaran Owens, Banjo/Mandolin and Lee Jones, Guitar. This new group play a range of traditional and contemporary tunes and songs, arranged in a traditional style.

NATHAN CARTER IN CONCERT Back by popular demand, country music star Nathan Carter makes a welcome return to Ardhowen Theatre on Wednesday, October 15 and Thursday, October 16 at 8pm. Just a few years on the road and in that short space of time Nathan has become one of the biggest stars in Country Music signing a recording deal with Decca Records in the UK. His current single ‘Good Time Girls’ is certain to be another winner for him.

Please note, both these concerts have sold out.

THE YOUNG FOLK Following their outstanding performance earlier this year, The Young Folk return to Ardhowen Theatre’s Gallery Bar on Friday, October 17, at 9pm. Hailed as “one of the most promising young Irish bands for decades”, Anthony Furey, vocals/guitar; Tony McLoughlin, bass/mandolin; Paul Butler, piano/vocals and Karl Hand, drums/percussion, have had a busy year, playing in New York, Italy, UK (the prestigious Cambridge Folk Festival, where they shared a stage with The Waterboys and The Staves) and Ireland. They recently opened for Imelda May at one of her sold out shows at Vicar Street in Dublin, appeared on RTE’s ‘The Saturday Night Show’ and have also released their debut album ‘The Little Battle’ with the first single ‘Way Home’ through Pixie Pace Records.

JONATHAN HARKER AND DRACULA He is deathly pale; his fingernails are cut to sharp points; his teeth protrude menacingly from his mouth in clouds of rancid breath. Yet even Count Dracula’s unnerving appearance and the frightened reaction of the local peasants fail to warn Jonathan Harker, a young man from England, about his host. Little does Jonathan know that this is a land where babies are snatched and wolves howl menacingly from the forest, where reality is far more frightening than superstition and it’s going to be up to him to stop the world’s most bloodthirsty predator.

Adapted and directed by Michael Poynor, this new adaptation of Bran Stoker’s iconic masterpiece, sees Gerard McCarthy playing both Jonathan Harker, whose diaries chronicle the bloody tale, and the greatest supernatural monster of all time, Dracula.

Using multiple cameras, backing screens, projections, surround sound and a newly commissioned score, this solo tour de force will make audiences scream.

Gerard McCarthy was awarded Sir Kenneth Branagh’s Renaissance Scholarship. He currently plays Kevin McSwain in BBC 2’s BAFTA nominated drama ‘The Fall’ starring Gillian Anderson and has also recently played Brondsted in the first episode of Michael Hirst’s brand new History Channel series ‘Vikings’ starring Gabriel Byrne.

Ulster Theatre Company and Theatre at The Mill present ‘Jonathan Harker and Dracula’ on Saturday, October 18, at 8pm, featuring Kym Marsh, Rachel Tucker and Jayne Wisener as the brides of Dracula in a pre-recorded sequence to be projected during the performance.

Prepare to be petrified!

Patrons are warned this production contains frightening scenes; responsibility for allowing under-12s to attend lies with the accompanying adult.

MAGIC OF THE MUMMY The most famous of all the Egyptian Myths, a story of life, death, love and jealousy; this is the tale of Osiris, the first Pharaoh of Egypt and his evil brother Set, who plots to take over the kingdom of Egypt for himself.

This performance, on Wednesday, October 22, at 10.30am, by Clydebuilt Puppet Theatre, ‘fleshes out’ the stories behind the artefacts of Ancient Egypt and is suitable for the primary school age range of five to 12 years.