Published: 26 February 2023

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Betrayal is about illusory love, misplaced trust and false friendships. We caught up with Gary Bird, director for GEDS (Geneva English Drama Society) to tell us more about the play. He has offered 2 pairs of seats for one of the performances of Betrayal; read below.

The storyline of Betrayal
Emma is married to Robert but has a long-standing affair with his best friend, Jerry. On the surface, all appears normal between the families, but what simmers underneath is another story... Told through reverse chronology, permutations of betrayal upon betrayal unfold between all three of the characters until none of them know what is real anymore.

What is the theme of Betrayal?
Gary explains, "It’s right there in the title: Betrayal. But if there is one thing we know about playwrite Harold Pinter is that he is never obvious, and betrayal is merely one theme in this seminal play about the eternal love triangle.

"This play explores the effects of betrayal, friendship, love, lust, trust, family, guilt, unconscious desires, community, identity, honesty, loss. And at the root of all these lies what I believe is the true essence of the play: alienation. The characters in the play are not only alienated from their friends and family, spouses and community, but also from themselves. “Who am I?” “Where do I belong?” Their alienation manifests in a profound sense of loss that the characters themselves do not wholly understand. Every precious shared memory between friends Robert and Jerry, between the two families, is tainted by a sense of loss that such warm interaction can never be replicated – given what has passed between them. This sense of loss inherent throughout the play resonates outward as ripples from a stone thrown into a calm pool of water.

"The characters’ increasing sense of loss of reality is another manifestation of alienation. Robert tells Jerry, “You really didn’t know much about anything.” And yet, throughout the play, Jerry states that no one knows what is going on except he and Emma. That they have the ultimate knowledge. When he discovers that that was not the case, that it is he, in fact, who knows less than the others, his sense of reality, his sense of self, is shaken, shattered. He is living in a different world than which he conceived. What is he to believe in now?

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Published: 09 February 2023

Would you like to discover an idyllic and typical Switzerland? Experience this miniature scenery indoors with this amazing train set with over 2km of tracks at the Chemins de Fer du Kaeserberg on a scale of 1:87. You are transported back to an autumn day in the 90s, it is 11h, the weather is fine and you are somewhere in Switzerland. The journey can begin!

• 2'045 metres of track and around 100 trains running on one day of the visit (out of a total of 160 available trains)
• Discover which railway equipment was used in Switzerland in the 90s
• Our specialists will be happy to answer your questions
• A didactic model
• A simulator for driving a real locomotive (on reservation)

The visitor will be amazed by the level and degree of perfection offered and the time spent on the model train will not leave him time to discover this extraordinary fresco. The total amazement he will feel is accompanied only by the curiosity to discover the countless facets of this "animated painting", whose thousand details have all been treated with special care.

Stats in numbers:

• 17 years of construction
• 610 overall area (m2)
• 1:87 scale used
• 100 trains in action at the same time
• 910 catenary masts
• 1'650 train wagons
• 300 locomotives
• 6'500 figurines
• 1'160 road vehicles
• 5'400 trees
• 1 steamboat
• 1 aircraft
• 1 cable car

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Published: 02 February 2023

More than 250 animals are presented on the 3 floors of the Mycorama, on the site of Evologia in Cernier (NE) through 5 March 2023. The array of species that many have never seen in real life are set up in this temporary, mobile vivarium located within the the "Jardins Extradinaire" of Evologia Cernier, located between Neuchâtel and La Chaux-de-Fonds. The museum is open daily from 10h-18h.

The 2 headed mascotte: Tom & Jerry
Born in the USA in 2002, "Tom and Jerry" is unique in its genre. This California kingsnake (Lampropeltis g. californiae) with two heads, is one of the rare snakes in the world to have survived so long with this anomaly. In the wild, they would not have lasted long, but since this snake was a baby, Tom and Jerry have been taken care of for the last 18 years. An exceptional longevity knowing that these snakes can live about 12-15 years in captivity. A longevity record of 23 years has been established by the species. During fertilization, while there should have been two monozygotic twins, the fertilized egg divided late and the two fetuses developed while being stuck to each other by certain parts of the body. They are monozygotic twins whose first separation was incomplete. Fortunately for Tom and Jerry, the separation was done on a part of the body that does not interfere with survival, and has no consequences on the internal organs.

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Published: 19 January 2023

When we heard about the Alimentarium's new Escape Game AL2049, a type of simulator for age 12-77, we had to contact Head of Content at this Vevey Museum to find out more. Nicolas Godinot, a Swiss/French national with perfect English, explained and demonstrated the game to us.

"We wanted to put together a project that put forward the issues of today's world to feed those in years to come. The eco-system put forward in this game challenges the way we think. Of course it can be enjoyed by all ages but we really are targeting 15-25 year-olds as they are in that teenage group that doesn't often visit museums, while challenging our system and being climate conscious. Our objective is to show them through a digital system how choices we make today affect our tomorrow."

Nicolas claimed that this project, AL2049 (the name is derived from "Alimentarium" and a future date), took 2.5 years to put together from the first idea to the final implementation. He worked alongside a great team from the University de Genève's TECFA LIP department with Professor Eric Sanchez. The digital programming graphics, and fine-tuned game design were done by local Vevey company, Digital Kingdom.

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