For twenty years now the actor and writer Pat Kinevane – in collaboration with the artistic director of Fishamble theatre company, Jim Culleton – has been exploring various aspects of what it is like to be down-and-out in a society that puts a premium on being upwardly mobile.
GLAS welcomed him back on the Geneva stage in King, which features his latest incarnation, a reclusive Elvis impersonator named Luther in honour of his Granny Bee Baw’s hero Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He is bedevilled by mental health and anxiety disorders, only leaving the confines of his starkly bare dwelling to perform anonymously in a local bar.
We learn much about the dystopian nature of his upbringing as the only son of a pair of ballroom dancers specialising in the tango. Unloved by his mother, he now cares for his demented father, the last link to a childhood dominated by his larger-than-life grandmother who inculcated him with Irish nationalism and a sympathy for the downtrodden.
He is still in recovery from his adolescent experience in a mental hospital, and the prospect of love is in the air only to be cruelly dashed.
All in all, this a perfect vehicle for Kinevane’s extraordinary stagecraft. It’s a solo show populated by a multitude of characters; full of movement, humour and pathos. In a cheerful moment that won applause from the audience, he proves himself to be a fine gospel singer in the style of Elvis. His variations on the theme of tango dancing are superb.
GLAS was delighted to welcome Fishamble back to Geneva. Their last visit was in 2014 when they presented Silent, which went on to win a Laurence Olivier Award. On this occasion, CHF 6,200 was raised to support the Gaza School of Music, a branch of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, which GLAS has been supporting since 2016.
GLAS was pleased to have the technical support of Jane Easton and John Newsome from the Geneva English Drama Society whose new production Deathtrap by Ira Levin runs at Théâtre de Terre-Sainte, Coppet, 25-29 November.