Nobody could ever accuse Samuel Beckett of looking at life through rose-tinted spectacles, fascinated as he was by ‘the tranquillity of decomposition.’ That’s a phrase I picked up from Conor Lovett’s marvellous incarnation of Beckett’s anti-hero Molloy on the Geneva stage last night before a capacity crowd in the Lutheran Evangelical Church. The drama in…
Joy and good humour were unconfined last night as GLAS marked its 20th anniversary with a double bill before a capacity crowd in Geneva, raising CHF 9,100 for the Gaza School of Music, which GLAS has supported since 2016. The evening kicked off with a delightful one-act black comedy ‘Friends help You Move’ about two…
The spirit of last night’s GLAS Christmas concert was perfectly captured in the happy face of ex-UN staffer, Margaret Strang (below left) when she was surprised during Eoghan O’Sullivan’s set with a birthday cake to mark her 94th birthday. Eoghan led a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday which followed nicely on his efforts to encourage…
There was an audible gasp of disbelief from the GLAS audience last night when they realised that the formidable Kitsy Rainey had shuffled off this mortal coil since we last saw her alive and well and about to marry the mute cobbler, Pat Farnon. Such was the hold she had taken on the affections of…
It is not too much of a stretch to say that a day in the life of Pat Farnon, a mute cobbler and Sligo bachelor, is as significant in its own way as a day in the life of Leopold Bloom or Ivan Denisovich. Just ask anyone in the capacity audience last night in Geneva…
The GLAS Christmas Concert was very special this year. It was a story of two halves. One played by the UN Choir, centred on yuletide carols, while The Emigrants gave us music from the rich repertoire of the Irish tradition. And the result was at least CHF 6,500 collected on the night for the displaced…
Jigs, reels and songs aplenty rang out in the old town of Geneva yesterday as GLAS welcomed a full house inside the hallowed walls of the Lutheran Evangelical Church on the Place Bourg de Four. The traditional Irish music trio Tulsk electrified the audience from the start. The interplay between Peter Molloy on flute, Sean…
The first GLAS event of the year was billed as a spring concert and there was definitely a spring in the step of Eoghan O’Sullivan as he took to the stage to deliver a buoyant, uplifting set of songs ‘From the Bright Side’ that earned him a standing ovation from a capacity attendance. The singer-songwriter…
The GLAS Hour presented viewers with a world exclusive last Wednesday when our guest Colm Tóibín read an extract from his work in progress, The Magician in which he promises to do for the life of Thomas Mann what he did so successfully for Henry James in The Master. Watch the interview in full here.…
There are not many times in a professional singer’s life when she spontaneously yields the stage to a member of the audience. It happened Friday night when Lisa Lambe called young Molly O’Sullivan up on to the stage to sing the chorus of her song Hazelwood with the support of John McLaughlin on guitar and…
In the 14 years of GLAS, most people seem to recall one production more than others and that is Donal O’Kelly’s masterpiece Catalpa; so good we staged it twice. GLAS has also hosted his Fionnuala, Joyced (performed by his daughter Katie O’Kelly), and Little Thing, Big Thing. Donal’s return to the Geneva stage was long…
From Denis McClean, in Darjeeling When I look at this photograph, it makes me think of a life-boat crammed with children. Watching and listening to them playing marbles or throwing a ball around, you would never guess the heartache and suffering that many have endured. Some had been sold into virtual slavery by their impoverished…
Irish songwriters must be forming a disorderly queue to have Lisa Lambe record their offerings. Last night in Geneva she sang a song Paul Brady left unrecorded for thirty years before he offered it to her. She had to find one of those funny old cassette player things to listen to his rough cut of…
“There was a touch of magic here tonight.” That’s how one smiling punter summed up our evening last night with the great John Spillane in the simple setting of the Lutheran Evangelical Church in the heart of Geneva’s old town. The acoustics were great and you could savour every chord of his beautiful guitar playing,…
GLAS suppporters got a real treat last night as Sharon Shannon and her band made their Geneva debut to a packed house at the Centre des Arts, on Ecolint’s La Grande Boissière campus. She surrounds herself with great musicians: Jim Murray (acoustic guitar), Sean Regan (fiddle, percussion and beatbox) and Jack Maher (electric guitar and…
Luka Bloom’s agent in Switzerland told me that in all the Swiss German towns Luka performed in before coming to Geneva last Saturday his songs were met with polite applause but an uncomprehending silence greeted his stories about the songs. Saturday night’s sold-out show for GLAS, packed with Irish and other anglophone expats, must have…
New Road turned the GLAS Aula venue into a steamy swamp of deliriously joyful music on Saturday night. Not since the heyday of the Bothy Band and Planxty have I been so mesmerised by a group of Irish musicians revelling in the tradition but mixing it up with something else. That something else was partly…
In the year of the hunger strikes in 1981, I spent a month travelling through Palestine and Israel. I made my way to the Gaza Strip though it was under lock down and no journalists were allowed to enter. I joined several people in the back of a spacious Arab taxi leaving from East Jerusalem.…
Charolais lived up to its billing as a fast paced, witty, emotional and universal story of loss, despair and the power of love on the Geneva stage last night. It garnered a standing ovation and several curtain calls for the star of the evening Noni Stapleton who also wrote the show which is a Bigger…
What a night we had. John Spillane had the audience in the palm of his hand as he brought us on a guided tour of Cork, Ireland and the universe. He sang all his hits, including catchy numbers like John, Don’t Go To Ballincollig and a new song about the busking festival in Clonmel and…
Another great night – and a standing ovation – in the annals of GLAS. Among the many newcomers, the renowned opera singer, musician, polyglot, polymath, Kirsti Griffiths, attended her first GLAS event last night, Fishamble’s Little Thing, Big Thing which was a sell-out and raised CHF4,500 for the Edith Wilkins Foundation for Street Children. Kirsti…
Ardal O’Hanlon played a superb gig in Geneva last night as a guest of the Geneva Literary Aid Society. It raised CHF8,250 for the Edith Wilkins Foundation for Street Children in Darjeeling, India. A great night was had by all. He was even coaxed into singing a verse of My Lovely Horse from his Fr.…
GLAS raised 7,000 Swiss Francs for the Edith Wilkins Foundation for Street Children last night thanks to a spellbinding performance by Pat Kinevane in the Fishamble Theatre’s production of “Silent” directed by Jim Culleton. There were moments of great humour, grace and beauty throughout the piece during which the homeless street beggar Tino McGoldrick tells…
Last minute problems with GLAS events have taught me to hide my despair at cruel twists of fate and to bite my tongue when dealing with a concierge who resembles an ex-gang member who has become an avid convert to clean living and a rules-based lifestyle. He can make life and death decisions about our…
Over 200 people braved the cold winter night on January 27 to take their seats in the theatre at the College de Coudrier to hear the well-known Joycean scholar David Norris’ give his tour de force performance based on the life and work of James Joyce, “Do You Hear What I’m Seeing?”. They had gathered…