Geneva Literary Aid Society

Blooming Ulysses (16.06.2025)

“If Ulysses isn’t worth reading, then life isn’t worth living” – James Joyce.

GLAS is delighted to bring Blooming Ulysses to the Geneva stage for the first time.

Every year, fans of Ulysses celebrate Bloomsday on 16 June, which is the day in 1904 on which Leopold Bloom famously makes his way around Dublin in search of diversion while knowing that his wife Molly is likely embarking on an affair with the smooth-talking Blazes Boylan.  

Gerry Farrell’s one-man show is usually being performed in Dublin or the US at this time of the year but we have persuaded him to come to Geneva for the first time, and on Bloomsday itself!

Gerry Farrell in Blooming Ulysses

The reviews

GLAS saw the show two years ago and have been trying to get it to Geneva ever since. It is very funny and captures the spirit of the book in an uncanny way.

‘At one stage Farrell, as Leopold Bloom, delivers an extraordinary stream of consciousness, an interior monologue triggered by the mundane act of turning on a tap. The description of the water takes almost two pages of dense, almost geographical, exposition in the novel, and hats off to Farrell for memorising it all,’ – The Sunday Times.

‘Delightful…A full, filthy, rambunctious, mischievous celebration of life,’ – Sunday Independent.

Even if you have never read the book, you will thoroughly enjoy this show, and you never know, you might win a copy of the book in the famous GLAS raffle! It will impress visitors even if you just put it on your coffee table.

The proceeds from the evening will go towards humanitarian relief in the Gaza Strip and for the first time in a while we return to Coudriers, where GLAS made its debut twenty years ago with Do You Hear What I am Seeing? also inspired by Joyce.

Ticket Reservations

Send an email stating your name and the number of tickets required to: bookings@theglas.org

Date: Monday 16 June at 19.30 (Ticket collection and refreshments from 18.30)
Tickets: CHF 30 (or CHF 20 for retired and unemployed; and CHF 10 for students)
Venue: Aula, College des Coudriers, 15a Ave Joli Mont (opp. Balexert)
CLICK FOR MAP AND DIRECTIONS.

The ever-popular GLAS raffle is sponsored by Charly O’Neill’s bar and restaurant.