It’s hard to pin a description on one of Queerguru’s favorite actor/stand-up comedian EDDIE IZZARD ….. a surrealist stage screen presence also known now as Suzy. We’ll go with the latest one where Izzard has described herself as “a lesbian trapped in a man’s body”
Edde/Suzy leads a very packed professional life which is always near impossible to predict. One of her latest projects is Dr Jekyll a modern re-imagining of Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Izzard plays retired doctor Nina Jekyll, who lives in a huge country mansion and wishes to employ some live-in help. Enter convicted ex-junkie Rob Stevenson (Scott Chambers), whose brother has managed to get him an interview, much to the disdain of Jekyll’s stern personal assistant Sandra (Lindsay Duncan), but Jekyll is taken by Rob, who is desperate to get a steady job and so he can get custody of his daughter, who is ill and in social care, which leads to the formation of a peculiar friendship between the two, and secrets that will be revealed.
It’s been released by the Hammer Films company known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Its already been in Uk cinemas and in Russia too (?) but we are still waiting for news of a US release.
Meanwhile, Izzard is now in NY playing 23 roles in a solo Hamlet, adapted by her brother Mark Izzard and directed by Selina Cadell—which offers proof of why the melancholy Dane didn’t include similar guidance in his advice to the players. It garnered rave reviews and sold out audiences so it has just been announced that when it finishes its run at the Greenwich House Theater it will transfer to the Orpheum Theater for another month
Earlier last year Izzard announced that she is hoping to stand as a member of parliament at the UK’s next general election. A committed activist and member of the Labour Party she is now doing the rounds of Constituencies trying to be adopted as a Candidate. Anyone who doubts her commitment should note that Izzard is also known for completing a series of extreme marathon challenges to raise money for charity, including running 29 marathons in 29 days in 28 different countries! That is no joke!
