{"id":106261,"date":"2023-02-13T17:10:47","date_gmt":"2023-02-14T01:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=106261"},"modified":"2023-02-28T07:03:14","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T15:03:14","slug":"dan-hoyle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/dan-hoyle\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Hoyle probes White privilege \u2014 with his mouth and heart \u2014 in one-man show at The Marsh Berkeley"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It\u2019s easy to see Dan Hoyle in\u00a0Talk to Your People<\/i>. It\u2019s easy to hear him. But it\u2019s virtually impossible to absorb everything he says.<\/p>\n

The one-man, multiple-character show, which runs at The Marsh Berkeley through March 11, is incredibly deep and dense \u2014 so dense, in fact, that it could take a second (or third) viewing to get it all.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s certainly more opaque than his last show,\u00a0Border People<\/i>, which focused on tribes different from his own liberal Caucasian cultural backdrop.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Hoyle, Talk to Your People<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Hoyle, a consummate performer, here in his seventh show continues his documentary-style outings that stem from interviewing countless people, a methodology he calls \u201cthe journalism of hanging out.\u201d In this case, those people were mainly in Oakland, where he lives, and its hills.<\/p>\n

But also, apparently, as far away as West Marin.<\/p>\n

And, like the protesters on the street and the young girl splashing in the beach water or scootering on the concrete, all of whom appear in videos on a screen before and behind Hoyle, his agenda is straightforward: He wants the audience to deep-dive with him into complicated concepts such as systemic racism, culture-canceling, and White privilege \u2014 especially that last item.<\/p>\n

His well-honed tools are his way with words (which ranges from simple and coarse to complex and eloquent), his skill with physical comedy and exaggeration, and, unlike his previous outings, a talent for utilizing rap and other genres of music to sneak-ease the viewer into digesting his messages.<\/p>\n

Hoyle\u2019s updated work is masterful, as are his playwriting abilities. The only thing missing, just like in previous creations, is a close-up depiction of females. They\u2019re a second-hand presence, materializing only through the lips of the males.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Hoyle,<\/em><\/strong> Talk to Your People<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

To its credit,\u00a0Talk to Your People<\/i>, which had a mid-pandemic run in San Francisco a year ago, explores not only how society got to the current apparent low point it\u2019s at but how it can move forward, using heart instead of brains.<\/p>\n

The performance, developed and directed by Charlie Varon, an exquisite one-man show artist himself, spotlights Hoyle\u2019s mash-up that spotlights, among others, a still-arrogant White corporate burn-out who in a former life was a combo hippie jock, a guy with \u201cthe soul of an activist\u201d who isn\u2019t anymore, an Argentine Marxist techie fidgeting because he\u2019s discovered he\u2019s an elite, and a Jewish PhD who\u2019d been forced to read\u00a0Dante\u2019s Inferno<\/i>\u00a0when he was seven, who\u2019d spent years as a White jazz musician, and who proclaims he\u2019s \u201cas neurotic and sensitive as anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoyle mouth-meanders in heartfelt, often poignant ways about filling in application boxes for ethnicity, \u201ccrypto versus cash,\u201d defunding the police, unemployment, Black Lives Matter, Airbnbs, and being bi-racial.<\/p>\n

He sprinkles\u00a0Talk to Your People<\/i>\u00a0with descriptions of a guy bemoaning another who only has \u201cone type of wine glass,\u201d the idea that \u201cpeople are beginning to live in their emotion,\u201d and the notion that we all \u201cshould go back to middle school\u201d to re-learn how to get along with each other.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all introspection, polemic, or talk about re-segregation, though. The show contains extraordinary moments of tenderness \u2014 for instance, when Hoyle portrays a father who often interrupts his conversation with a compadre to help his toddler take an invisible rocket to the moon.<\/p>\n

Yes, there is some blurring that happens in Hoyle\u2019s panoramic, 75-minute delivery, and an audience member needs to be forgiven if he or she or they doesn\u2019t immediate grok who\u2019s who onstage (even with the simple, effective costume changes that instantly change him from bare-chested beachgoer with beer in hand to, let\u2019s say, a character whose shiny white sneakers distract).<\/p>\n

If theatergoers want him to tie everything up with a neat multi-racial ribbon, they\u2019ll be disappointed. Some may be put off, too, by lots of run-on sentences or casual swearing.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, those who seek out tour de force solo performances and aren\u2019t nettled by a smattering of flaws will be grateful he and his muses finished the piece.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Talk to Your People<\/em> runs at the Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way through March 11. Tickets, $25 to $100. Info: https:\/\/themarsh.org<\/a> or (425) 641-0235.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Woody Weingarten, a longtime member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at\u00a0voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a>\u00a0or on his websites,\u00a0https:\/\/woodyweingarten.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0https:\/\/vitality press.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s easy to see Dan Hoyle in\u00a0Talk to Your People. It\u2019s easy to hear him. But it\u2019s virtually impossible to absorb everything he says. The one-man, multiple-character show, which runs…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":106262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":3,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-106261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"