Resident Alien

Quentin Crisp was a curious phenomena. The English writer and raconteur was discovered by chance at age 60, his acerbic wit and deliberate androgyny made him distinct, even during the culturally diverse 60’s and 70’s where everyone was pushing visual and moral boundaries in a bustle for recognition.

His look and voice were utterly unique, making any depiction of him without caricaturing challenging and difficult. Paul Capsis has taken on that challenge in the current production of Resident Alien, a one-man play written by Tim Fountain based on interviews with Crisp and excerpts of his writings.

Set in 1998-99 in Crisp’s famously filthy, derelict New York apartment, the monologue is an uncensored show-reel of Crisp’s abrasive candour, intuitive wisdom and incisive intellect.

“Quentin’s armoury was his words,” said Capsis. “He had quite contradictory and quite full-on things that he says… in Melbourne there were nights when people would gasp in the audience at what Quentin had to say about the world.”

Capsis has always been an admirer of Crisp, having felt an affinity with him from an early age. Capsis grew up dealing with his own internal gender conflict.

“I remember myself as a child when I thought I was female being told I was male – I was very upset about that.”

He has immersed himself completely in the role, reading all of Crisp’s works, watching videos repeatedly, studying other performances (notably John Hurt in The Naked Civil Servant), and even engaging a voice coach to help him with Crisp’s idiosyncratic cadence, tone and delivery. Ironically, given there is no singing in the play, Capsis sees this role as one of his most vocally demanding.

“It was like learning a third language. I didn’t know anybody who spoke this way.”

Crisp’s voice became a point of contention between Capsis and the director, Gary Abrahams, who felt the audience would find it irritating after a while. In fact, on a number of small details, Abrahams and Capsis had a dramatic licence tug-of-war. Capsis vehemently wanted to create a realistic and faithful representation of Crisp.

“I feel I owe it to him… People need to know who he was.”

Capsis himself is an intriguing, compelling artist with a back catalogue of outstanding one-man shows and inspired performances on stage and screen.

This melding of extraordinary talent and kindred spirit should make Resident Alien a show not to be missed. (RB)

Jul 12–23. The Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre, Cnr City Rd and Cleveland Street, Chippendale. $28-$48. Tickets & info: seymourcentre.com