Geoff Hoyle's "Geezer" March 17, 2011

The Marsh MainStage

Wed at 8:00pm - March 30 and April 20 ONLY
Thu at 8pm
Sat at 5pm
Sun at 3pm

No shows:
Sat, April 23
Sunday, April 24

From a hysterical riff on life in a nursing home to The Venerable Bede’s meditations on the meaning of life, from delightful reminiscences of his youth in England and young manhood in America to ruminations on aging and mortality, Geoff Hoyle brings his irrepressible sense of comedy and trademark physicality, as well as a certain elegiac wistfulness, to this tour-de-force performance about what it is like to grow old.

Geoff Hoyle trained with Marcel Marceau’s teacher, Etienne Decroux, in Paris, developing his unique physical bravura comic style, a combination of the court jester, vaudeville and English music hall. He made his mark in the Bay Area as the Pickle Family Circus’ beloved clown, Mr. Sniff. Later, he created the critically acclaimed “Feast of Fools,” featuring masked Commedia Dell’Arte characters including the libidinous and elderly Pantalone (Hoyle claims he will no longer need to use a mask for this one,) Il Dottore and the pratt-falling Arleccino. It is a depiction of Everyman striving for dignity in the face of a multitude of struggles, big and small, that is not unlike Hoyle’s own search for meaning in GEEZER. His award-winning shows “The Convict’s Return” (about taking “Feast of Fools” to Broadway and its mixed reception there,) “(Geni(us)” and “The First Hundred Years” (an improbable history of comedy) have been seen in San Francisco, Paris, London, Berlin, Taiwan, New York, England and the former Soviet Union.

Regional theatre appearances include Berkeley and Seattle Repertory Theatres, A.C.T. and La Jolla Playhouse. He was the original Zazu in the Broadway cast of “The Lion King” and appeared off-Broadway in Bill Irwin’s “Mr. Fox and in Tony Kushner’s and Maurice Sendak’s adaptation of the children’s opera “Brundibar.” His many film appearances include “Popeye,” during which his son, Dan, was born. Last summer, he performed his fabled three-legged dance in the oldest theatre in Italy, the Teatro della Pergola, built in Florence in1656. Critics have remarked at the sheer joy Hoyle’s character finds in mastering his extra limb!

Official Website: http://www.themarsh.org/geoff_Hoyle.html