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…
Category: Review
Review, Theatre
Standing ovation for “The Man in the Woman’s Shoes”
by Denis McClean •
Music, Review
GLAS Christmas concert raises CHF 6,500 for Gaza musicians
by Denis McClean •
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…
Music, Review
Trad takes Geneva by storm
by Denis McClean •
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…
Music, Review
Eoghan O’Sullivan kicks off the GLAS year in style
by Denis McClean •
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…
Poetry, Prose, Review
That was the GLAS Hour with… Colm Tóibín
by Denis McClean •
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.…
Music, Review
Lisa Lambe lights up the Geneva night
by Denis McClean •
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…
Review, Theatre
GLAS welcomes back Donal O’Kelly
by Denis McClean •
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…
Music, Review
Humour, heart and hope as Luka returns to Geneva
by Eoghan O'Sullivan •
Music, Review
Another great night in the annals of GLAS
by Denis McClean •
Music, Review
John Spillane: was he brilliant or what?
by Denis McClean •
“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,…
Music, Review
Sharon Shannon plays up a storm
by Denis McClean •
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…
Music, Review
Standing ovation for Luka Bloom
by Denis McClean •
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…
Music, Review
A new road opens for GLAS in Geneva
by Denis McClean •
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…
Music, Poetry, Politics, Review
Giving something back to Gaza
by Denis McClean •
Comedy, Review, Theatre
Charolais: loss, despair and the power of love
by Denis McClean •
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…
Music, Review
The Voice Squad and John Spillane conquer Geneva
by Denis McClean •
Review, Theatre
Thank you Fishamble!
by Denis McClean •
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…
Comedy, Review
Superb gig by Ardal
by Denis McClean •
Review, Theatre
Standing ovation for Silent
by Denis McClean •
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…
Music, News, Review
Some really good news from GLAS
by Denis McClean •
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…
GLAS Events, Review, Theatre
Joyced & Fionnuala by Donal O’Kelly (24.09.2013)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
We had an amazing night of theatre last night from Donal O’Kelly in his award-winning drama, Fionnuala, which lays bare much that is undesirable about Shell’s operations in Ireland, in a rivetting tour de force full of humour and pathos. His daughter, Katie, performed Donal’s roller coaster tribute to Joyce and the Dublin he left…
News, Review, Theatre
More Lives Than One – startling news
by Eoghan O'Sullivan •
The world woke up this morning to the startling news that the number of billionaires has dropped for the first time since 2003, down a staggering 355. Unfortunately, the numbers of children orphanned by AIDS shows no sign of dropping and currently stands at over 15 million children around the world but this rarely makes headlines.…
GLAS Events, Review, Theatre
The Good Thief by Conor McPherson (28.11.2007)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
Performed by Conor Lovett Directed by Judy Hegarty Lovett Wednesday 28 November, 2007 Proceeds of this event were donated to the Furaha Orphans Centre in Kilifi, Kenya Speech given by Hilary Papo, the president of the Association for Solidarity with Children in Kenya Audience Reaction: That was a superb performance last night. Thank you so…
GLAS Events, Music, Review
An Evening with Ronnie Drew (16.04.2005)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
An Evening with Ronnie Drew, Theatre Cité Bleue, Geneva – April 16, 2005 No historian could ever summon up the feel and texture of the nation the way Ronnie Drew does through the course of a ghost-filled evening. In Geneva last Saturday night, he took us on an unsentimental journey down the last 150-odd years,…
News, Review
David Norris event launches Geneva Literary Aid Society
by Denis McClean •
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…