Last Chance

Theater

Marcel Marceau--At 79, French pantomime paragon Marcel Marceau still has the power to redefine theater in his own image. In an age of relentless amplification, he gives us the wonder of silence. In an age of numbing literalism, he conjures up the magic of metaphor. In an age when every facet of meaning is desperately heightened and oversold, he dares to make demands on an audience. Watch him closely at the Geffen Playhouse or you might miss something sublime. You might enjoy only the easy, funny stuff--the endearing lion-tamer routine, for instance, in which he can’t get his big cat to jump through a hoop. Slip into the way you normally gaze at movies or TV and you’ll be lost when Marceau takes on subjects and feelings that so much entertainment is designed to keep at bay--the way, for example, that he physicalizes the duality of human nature by making his left hand humane and even spiritual, but the right hand carnal and violent. Who else can make a simple walk convey the sense of life lived too quickly and death ticking inside us with every step?

Lewis Segal

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Ends Sunday at the Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood, (310) 208-5454.

Also closing this weekend:

God Bless Americana, Part 2: The Retro Slide Show Tour of Southern California--Collector, preservationist and raconteur Charles Phoenix’s slide show of vintage Southern California color photos closes Sunday at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, (866) 754-3374.

Always ... Patsy Cline --Ted Swindley’s contrived two-person revue, which features plenty of Cline tunes, closes Sunday at the Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach, (949) 497-2787.