Geoff Hoyle's GEEZER at The Marsh Extends Through 4/26

The Marsh announces that Geoff Hoyle's hit solo show GEEZER will extend at The Marsh Berkeley through April 26, following its current sold-out run previously scheduled to close March 1. This vivid look at NOT "going gentle into that good night" by one of the era's most acclaimed physical comedy actors will play Thursdays at 8pm and Saturdays at 5pm at The Marsh Berkeley Main Stage, 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. For tickets ($25-$50), the public may visit www.themarsh.org or call 415-282-3055 between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm, Monday through Friday. All proceeds from the final performance Saturday, April 26 (tickets $50-$100, include reception) will benefit The Marsh.

Geoff Hoyle spins a lifetime of tales into comic gold in GEEZER. From a hysterical riff on life in a nursing home to The Venerable Bede's meditations on the meaning of life, delightful reminiscences of his youth in England and young manhood in America, to ruminations on aging and mortality, 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 Etienne Decroux in Paris, developing his unique bravura comic style - a combination of court jester, vaudevillian, and English music hall comedian. 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 prat-falling Arlecchino. His award-winning shows The Convict's Return, Geni(us), and The First Hundred Years have been seen in San Francisco, Paris, London, Berlin, Taiwan, New York, England, Russia, and Latvia.

Hoyle created the original Zazu in the Broadway cast of The Lion King. He 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. He also appears regularly with Teatro Zinzanni. His regional theatre appearances include shows at Seattle Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, with leading roles in Volpone, The Alchemist, The Beaux Stratagem, Endgame, Scapin, Act Without Wordsand Lemony Snicket's The Composer is Dead, among others.

David Ford, who co-developed and directed GEEZER, has been collaborating on new and unusual theatre for two decades. Recent work includes Marilyn Pittman's All The Rage, Cherry Zonkowski's Reading My Dad's Porn and French Kissing the Dog, and Not a Genuine Black Man with Brian Copeland, which performed more than 650 times in San Francisco, LA and New York. Other work of note includesSay Ray, with storyteller-holy-man Ron Jones and Michael Rice, a mentally disabled performer; and Rush Limbaugh in Night School,Rabbi Sam, Ten Day Soup, and The People's Violin with Charlie Varon. He also worked with Bill Talen on the original creation ofReverend Billy, the Obie Award-winning theatre/political action piece. Ford's work has been seen regionally at Public Theater, Second Stage Theatre, Theatre at St. Clement's, Dixon Place, New York's Theater for the New City, Highways Performance Space in Los Angeles, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, as well as at theatres around the Bay Area including Magic Theatre and Marin Theatre Company. Ford also teaches Creating and Performing Your Own Work at The Marsh and is a Resident Artist.

Photo Credit: Patti Meyer