The Festival has assembled a strong line-up for its In Conversation series at 6 p.m. in the Gaiety dress circle. It opens today with Richard Eyre, former artistic director of the Royal National Theatre, in conversation with theatre critic, Karen Fricker. On Saturday, Lev Dodin, artistic director of the Maly Theatre of St Petersburg, one of the last great ensemble companies in the world, will no doubt speak from strikingly contrasting experience, to The Glasgow Herald's Mark Fisher.

Next Tuesday, Steven Berkoff, who needs no introduction, will get together for a chin-wag with Bedrock's artistic director, Jimmy Fay (lest we forget, the man who ran the first Fringe). On Wednesday 14th, there will be a panel discussion by playwrights on playwriting, featuring Marina Carr, Thomas Kilroy and Jim Nolan, chaired by director Ben Barnes. This session is facilitated by the publishers Gallery Press, who have just brought out handsome editions of Carr's Portia Coughlan and By The Bog Of Cats, Kilroy's Tea and Sex and Shakespeare and Nolan's The Salvage Shop. On Thursday 15th, Niall Toibin will talk to A. Another (the search goes on, apparently), while on Friday 16th, Paul Mercier, writer and director of The Dublin Trilogy, will talk to theatre critic, Jocelyn Clarke.

There's not much else that's free in this world, so book your tickets on 01-8748525.