Swiss trains - one step up from poems on the underground

One of the great thing about travelling on Swiss trains is that an ignoramous like me gets to learn a little more about Swiss culture each time. Yesterday I was in the Denis de Rougemont train from Geneva to Basel. You can find the full list of the political, philosophical and literary folk who are celebrated on Swiss trains here, spot how few women are on the list.
The carriages have different quotations from the person the train is named for and these serve to provoke thoughts, perhaps calm folk down or irritate them as they let the train take the strain.
Anyway I hope that on the way back I'll be on the Albert Einstein. I've promised myself that I shall walk through the carriages and note down the different quotations.
Next I think I want Geneva's buses to start carrying quotes or poems. These are simple things but they add to the travelling experience, for someone who knows almost nothing about Switzerland they also help widen my rather narrow cultural horizons.

More images from Stitching Peace

The Stiching Peace exhibition is going well in the Assembly Hall of the University of the West Indies. Roberta Bacic had to travel back to Ireland today but the exhibiton continues with Mairead and Marlene from Derry. Roberta was really enthusiastic about the experience of this international gathering in Jamaica and has alraedy got several invitations for further exhibtions. Today we had a visit from a group of local quilters here in Kingston, they left some great comments in the visitors book which has praise in many languages for the exhibtion.
The catalogues are also available in four languages and look really great.

Comedies always have to end with a wedding ...

On Saturday night we went to the newly reopened Théatre du Châtelard and saw Les Juifs by Gottfried Lessing. The production is the first time the play has been produced in French and it was interesting to see such a German play but in French. Our neighbours from the copropriété Hervé Loichemol and Anne Durand directed and acted in the lively and very carefully thought through production. It was good to be in the newly renovated theatre and to bump into folk we know there. How amazing to be able to walk to a first class theatre production less than five minutes from my front door.
I have never seen or read the play in German. Although it is a comedy, it is almost impossible to see it today without being struck by the tragic undertow of the story. The way that Jews are referred to in the play is of course heard by us today in the light of the holocaust that took place two hundred years after it was written, but also now in many other ways. Today you could hear similar things said about Muslims in most parts of Europe, and other parts of the so-called "civilised" world too.
There is a love story between two individuals which is cut short by the weight of society's deep prejudice. You can save a man's life, save his fortune, win his respect and his friendship. Yet because you belong to a despised religion you cannot marry his daughter. Generosity will not in this instance be repaid with anything other than shock and disdain. Lessing allows some crumbs of understanding to dawn amongst the characters. They appear to step away from some of their absolute anti-semitism, but only because of the extreme graciousness of the generous Jewish character - who is of course almost too good to be true. Comedies traditionally always end with a wedding and this play so very nearly does too. In the end though the young women curls up and weeps in incomprehension. The Jew walks away, lonely in his generosity. He has no other option.
Have we learnt the lessons? Did anyone learn Lessing's lesson?
Played for laughs it is a deeply serious story. It spoke to me of how deeply engrained and irrational our hatreds and prejudices are, how hard, impossible even it can be to leave them behind if society itself is not open enough to allow individuals that freedom.

News from Ferney Voltaire centre of the universe - second theatre opens!

Last week Ferney voltaire second theatre re-opened its doors. The Théatre du Châtelard which is about 200 metres from our front door has been completely renovated and rebuilt.
Ferney also has another small theatre "La Comédie" which also has a lively programme. It's pretty amazing to live in a small town (I tend to think of it as a village really) whichmanages to keep two theatres going.
The Châtelard opens with a play by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing which has never played in France before called Les Juifs. Our neighbour Hervé Loichmol is the artistic director of the Châtelard, his partner Anne Durand is one of the actors. So we are hoping to get tickets and walk along the road before the week is out! This is what Hervé says about why he chose this play:

C'est une pièce étonnante à plusieurs titres. Pour la première fois, elle critique ouvertement l'antijudaïsme chrétien, c'est-à-dire l'hostilité envers le judaïsme en tant que religion. C'est aussi la première oeuvre montrant un juif sous un angle positif. L'étonnement réside aussi dans la jeunesse de l'auteur. Lessing a 20 ans quand il écrit cette pièce et il n'est pas juif. Il y a chez lui une conscience politique incroyable.

You can find out more about the upcoming programme at the Châtleard here and to be fair about the Comédie here.

Afghan quilt - girls in Germany and Afghanistan stitch together relationships, meaning and hope

So here is an image of the wonderful quilt which was hung at the brilliant Verbal Arts Centre in Derry on Monday. The motto of the Verbal Arts Centre is "tell your story" (more about that later) and this quilt tells a powerful one. Young girls in Afghanistan embroider squares which they then sell in order to be able to pay for their schooling. Each of the squares of this quilt has one of those embroidered squares at its centre but the quilt was made by schoolgirls in a very multicultural part of Germany - each square has the name of a different country or of a German region sewn in writing onto it.
The quilt represents cooperation, learning and solidarity across borders. It also represents the possibility of building relationships in adversity. Young women helping one another without even knowing each other. Stitching a different future and offering all of us hope that things are already changing simply because of small and beautiful initiatives like this.

Cast lead ... bullets, bombs and blood ...

These are photos of the extraordinary textile art work by a German artist Heidi Drahota which is part of the Human cost of war exhibition in Derry. It's called gegossenes Blei - Cast Lead. This was the name given to an Israeli led action action against Gaza. Casting lead is of course also a game played at new year when molten lead is poured into water and you interpret the shapes. So we interpret the shapes of this poured lead ...
Those pretty hanging threads in this textile art are traces of bullets cast into bodies and houses.
Before knowing the story of this piece I was struck by it apparent beauty and technical accomplishment and then you begin to understand the reason for the metal in the red, the bloody mess of war and destruction - the human cost ... the human cost.

You can find the full catalogue of the exhibition here.

The Exhibition is curated by Roberta Bacic who has been organising major textile exhibitions of pieces of popular and professional work which tell a story both in Derry and internationally since 2007.

Chichester Psalms for Haiti

Last night we attended the wonderful Psalms for Haiti event at the cathedral in Geneva. It was very moving - beginning with an extraordinary noise for 35 seconds representing the noise of the earthquake.
A superlative choir and wonderful readers sang and spoke the Psalms in many forms.
Canon Ogé Beavoir, Dean of the Episcopal Theological Seminary, Port-au-Prince spoke movingly of the Haitian people's spirit and also of their need. the event was a fund raiser for rebuilding the Anglican Cathedral and its related social and educational facilities which were extensive before the quake.

The event opened my ears to Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, which I've never heard before. Last night's choir and organ gave at least as good a rendition as the full orchestra youtube version I've posted here. I also really enjoyed Arvo Pärt's de Profundis and all of the rest of the music and readings - especially the readings in creole. Thanks folks, it was WONDERFUL!
I've posted the full order in French and English here.

Wine, women and ... St Chinian

When we first came to St Chinian ten years ago, we bought a wonderful little guide from the Maisons des Vins to the vignerons of the St Chinian appellation. We couldn't possibly have visited every vineyard, so the first year we decided to limit ourselves to organic vinyards, and the second, to women winemakers. That was when we discovered Line Cauquil. Her father had owned the local garage and was also a "vigneron", delivering his wine to the local cave cooperative. When he retired, his son took over the garage, and Line - who worked in IT - decided to take over the vineyards, creating her own domaine, the Domaine Deslines (the feminine theme is reflected in the label for the "Grand Cru", which unfortunately proved too risqué for an order from the United States). Like most St Chinian wine, Line produces red, and we often end up driving back to Ferney with lots of red, but little white. So this holiday we decided also to test white wines, and started with a wine produced by Hildegard Horat of La Grange de Quatre Sous, at Assignan, a couple of kilometres from St Chinian. Hildegard is originally from Switzerland and arrived in the Languedoc in 1983. Her wines are "Vins de Pays" - but don't let that fool you into confusing them with the cheap generic wines in supermarkets. Like other vignerons in the area, Hildegard chose the VdP option to give her greater flexibility in the grape varieties she could use than if she had opted for the St Chinian or Côteaux de Languedoc appellation, and she uses organic methods (though doesn't promote her wine as such). When Hildegard started producing wines, a female vigneron was a rarity, now she belongs to an association of 18 women vignerons in the region called vinifilles - oh, and her domaine has just an echo of the Brecht/Weill Threepenny Opera, which in French is the Opéra de quat'sous - now, there's a reason to raise a glass!

Waiting for Godot ...

So you wait for months for emails about culture and then they come along in groups just like buses!
Our friend Alan Leather is starring in Waiting for Godot which will open while we're away. Do hope that we'll be back in time for one of the later performances though. Here are the details for those of you in the Geneva area

A Theatre Someone Production

Waiting for Godot
The classic comedy by Samuel Beckett.
Vladimir and Estragon pass the time waiting for Monsieur Godot. Will he arrive to-day?

Directed by Sue Humphreys
With Alan Leather, Gary Bird, Andrew Brookes, Joe Pirri, Gabriel Bird

October 1st and 2nd Theatre les 50, 31 bis Impasse aux Rues, St Jean de Gonville
October 9th Commons Room, Webster University, 15 Route de Collex, Bellevue
October 15th La Grande Salle, Emmanuel Church, 3 Rue Monthoux, Geneva
October 16th Salle Ausonne, L'Esplanade, Divonne les Bains

All performances start at 20.00hrs
Tickets 19 euros [France] 25 CHF [Switzerland] Free seating

For reservations or information:
e-mail theatresomeone@hotmail.com

or call +33 450201232
Web site www.theatresomeone.com

An english play about French colonialism, religion, tolerance and truth

I must get out more. More specifically I must get out to the theatre more. This review of a production by Peter Brook resonated with me over the weekend. Can't really say who but it was heartening to read that was thoughtful when writing abotu religion and not just boorishly negative. Sadly I don't hink I'll make it to London to see this before the end of the month but maybe Brook, who lives in Paris, will put on a production in France.

Although set in Mali 80 years ago, the story is filled with contemporary reverberations. It shows what happens when religion fails to accommodate dissent in the pursuit of sectional truths. It also topically shows the devastation wrought by uncomprehending European powers who impose their values on others: there is a bitter humour in the scene where the French induct the Africans into patriotic Gallic songs, or interrogate a Sufi leader as if a political subversive. But, in the end, the show is neither rancorous or bitter. It is about the limitations and the necessity of tolerance, and achieves a moving resolution as Tierno Bokar "goes to death as to a feast".

I also enjoyed reading this about an impromptu workshop with Brook, sounds like great fun.

Come to today's fête à Voltaire in Ferney - there's even a free late night bus!

Today the centre of Ferney is closed to traffic for the Fête à Voltaire and a free bus between Ferney and Gex has been put in place for this evening to encoruage people to come and join in the fun without using their cars. Different sections of the town focus on Asia, Europe, Africa and South America and Voltaire's Candide will be performed at various stages and by various groups throughout the town. there are more than 34 different food stands offering food from paella to guacamole and drinks from champagne to caipirinha, it's going to be fun if the thunder and rain can stay away!
Read the programme here.