Notes from Geneva

"Best Before" opened Saturday night to a full house of very enthusiastic participants. Ellen has been approached on the tram with praise for her performance. Johanna, the fourth person to occupy Bob's chair, gave a flawless performance. The play here has taken on a more political overtone. Part of the play includes a speech from the sound booth urging the audience to vote against a ballot measure in the next election that would adversely affect people in the  arts, making it harder for them to qualify for unemployment insurance.

Geneva has a program that should be copied by other cities. When you check in to a hotel here, you are given a transit pass good for the length of your stay. We have been making use of the trams almost daily. They also have places where you can borrow a bike for free.

Now that "Best Before"is in Switzerland, we are using the seventh currency on these tours. Canadian and US dollars, Mexican pesos, Euros, British pounds, Danish Krone, and Swiss francs.

We just received word that the presentation of "Best Before" in Paris has been postponed from December, 2010 to March, 2011. The theatre where the play will appear is still under construction. So if you were planning to come to Paris for the show, don't book your tickets just yet.

Geneva

We are in Geneva now. At the point where the Rhone River flows out of Lake Geneva is the Jet-D'Eau. The fountain blasts a stream of water 140 meters into the air. The Rhone flows through the center of the city. About a kilometer down stream from the lake the Rhone is joined by the blue-grey waters of the glacier fed L'Arve River. Geneva has taken full advantage of it's waterfront.

Ellen had a few days off here before beginning rehearsals. A new character is being introduced here. Johanna will do her part in French. There will be titles at the top of the screen, translating both the English into French and the French into English, so I will actually know what she is saying. Since a new character means rewriting a part of the play, it's amazing that they can they can make these changes with only a couple of rehearsals with the full cast. Of course, the directors work with the new character much more. Johanna will be the fourth person to perform in the spot that Bob was in in Vancouver.

We spent our free time here wandering the city, visiting the old town, parks, the weekly flea market, and generally becoming acquainted with the pace of life here. Geneva is the exception to the rule that it gets more expensive the further north you go. Though we a south of Germany, hotels and restaurants are very expensive here. However, we have found that groceries are about the same price as in Vancouver. Wine is cheaper here than at home, but I think that you have to go someplace without a wine industry to find wine that is more expensive than in British Columbia. Since the hotel provides breakfast and our room has a fridge, we frequently eat in.

Leaving Denmark

A poster from the Smokefest. The Smokefest (Smukfest in Danish) was an outdoor music festival attended by all ages. No smoking was in evidence. The only tie-in to the name that I saw was one booth selling cigarettes (while there were three bars selling drinks). I never saw anyone at the cigarette booth.

A last word about Denmark. Everywhere "Best Before" has been, Ellen and I have been able to at least be polite in the local language (hello, please, thank you). Not so in Denmark. We didn't have a clue. Mostly because it wasn't necessary. Everyone spoke English. We just expected it and began every encounter  in English. As one Dane told me, "We are a small country. We can't expect others to learn our language."

The trip from Aarhus to Geneva was an adventure for me. Ellen flew with the company, going from Aarhus to Copenhagen to Geneva in a few hours. I took the train. It took 16 hours, counting an hour and a half stopover in Hamburg and an eight minute stop in Basel. The nice thing about train travel is that eight minutes is plenty of time to make a connection. At times through Germany the train cruised along at over 160 kilometers per hour.

Aarhus, Denmark

Ellen (Rimini Protokoll) is on the same bill (or at least on the same billboard) as Rickis Lee Jones.

We are now in AArhus, the second largest city in Denmark and a University town. There are thousands of bikes (the city is mostly flat) and most major streets have designated bike lanes on the sidewalk level, so pedestrians must be doubly careful at intersections. Everyone, including cyclists and pedestrians, obey the traffic signals.

There are several festivals going on now. Besides the arts festival that "Best Before" is a part of, there is a childrens festival and at least three music festivals that I am aware of. Tuesday night I took a three hour walk through town and saw seven bands playing at six venues. Five of the venues were outside in various squares in the downtown.

As we knew it would be, Denmark is expensive, especially if you eat at restuarants (the further north you go in Europe, the more expensive it gets). Arjan estimates that it is 30% more expensive than Germany. We have the advantage of having breakfast provided by the hotel (the Radison Blu) and the rest of the meals supplied by the festival, so we haven't needed to spend much money.

I don't usually get  involved with the blog, but Ken suggested I (Ellen) make a few comments. Opening night exceeded all expectations. As we were integrating a new character (James) to replace Brady who is not longer with the play, things could have been rough. As it was, James, who in addition to being a technical director, is also now on stage, was a real crowd pleaser. All in all a fun night. THREE curtain calls and flowers, followed by a wine reception provided by the German consul to Denmark. Does it get any better? Stay tuned.

Now about our trips here. Ellen flew here via Vancouver, Toronto, Copenhagen, AaArhus. This in 24 hours with one overnight flight. (Can you say "jet lag"?) I (Ken) could only make a continuous trip with two successive overnight trips since I am flying standby on Continental. So I left two days earlier and spent Friday night and Saturday with my son Gabe in Houston. I caught a 6AM flight from Houston to Newark (the only possible flight I could get on, since Houston and Newark are Continental hubs and standby between these cities is like a company bus). I was #36 on the standby list.

The flight from Newark to Copenhagen arrived about 15 minutes after Ellen's Air Canada flight and parked at the next gate. I caught up with Ellen and the rest of her crew in the line for immigration (a mere formality when arriving in Europe from North America). We had time for a quick kiss before she went for her connecting flight and I went to the train station. I got to Aarhus about an hour and a half earlier than Ellen because she had to wait for her flight.