A Celbridge author has written a play about the high rate of suicides in Co Kildare.
Out Of The Blue, which is written and directed by Cathy Conlon, will be staged at Celbridge Manor Hotel on Friday at 8pm.
All proceeds will go to The Abbey Community Centre in Celbridge - a voluntary organisation dealing with drug addiction.
Cathy said: "I wrote Out Of The Blue as a response to the high incidence of suicide in young people, particularly in the Kildare area.
"The play examines the role of addiction in suicide ideation and addresses the possible causes for drug addiction, such as non-disclosure of distress, particularly in young males, which leads to a sense of alienation and loneliness.
"The play also looks at how male identity is effaced through poor employment prospects and, at times the lack of a male role model.
"Having conducted extensive research into the area of drug addiction, I discovered there is an inordinately high percentage of drug addicts who feel that suicide is their only avenue of escape from the stranglehold of debt that affects the entire family who are often forced to fund the drug habit out of fear of drug dealers."
An established author, Cathy has been shortlisted for the RTE P.J. O’Connor Radio Drama Awards and has had two stage plays performed.
Her poems have appeared in Poetry Ireland Review, The Irish Times, Books Ireland, The Cuirt Journal, Ropes, Skylight 47 and in various anthologies and newspapers.
Short stories have been published in Stories for the Ear and Boyne Berries.
Tickets can be booked by contacting catherineaconlon@gmail.com or by phone at 087 9772326.
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