In his iconic role in Head On, Capsis taught Australia how Greek girls walk in heels. He then went on tour, serenading the nation with torch songs that lit the darkest parts of the human heart, the points at which we can crossover to the other side and sneak a peak at the loves we have lost.
He achieved all this with the dignity of a gentleman our country fails to raise anymore. Well, unless you count 26-year-old WA director Matt Lutton who, in his gentlemen-like manner, has teamed up with Capsis to bring the nation Die Winterreise (The Winter Journey), Schubert’s epic song cycle of Wilhelm Muller’s poems. Lutton directs, Capsis sings, we are transported.
‘It’s regarded as one of the greatest song cycles ever written,’ Lutton told OUTinPerth. ‘To have Paul in the work, it fits perfectly. He is such an incredible storyteller, and this is such an incredible song cycle that I wanted somebody who was renowned in navigating the extremities and darkness such a work presents.
‘Plus Paul has such a range when it comes to music. So I wanted somebody who was not only a singer, but a performer as well.’
Lutton discovered Die Winterreise during a long hot Australian summer. It was nestled in a friend’s vinyl collection. As the cycle crackled to life on the phonograph, Lutton found himself intrigued. The songs were frozen and icy with the imagery of a European winter while Lutton sat in the sweat and heat of an Australian summer.
From this palatable contrast of contexts, Lutton reinvented Schubert’s tundra of lost love. Firstly, it is sung in English, not German. Secondly, it is staged, not simply a recital, as one would expect from a Schubert show. This means there are three narrative points covering youth (dancer James O’Hara), adulthood (Paul Capsis) and old age (George Shevtsov). Thirdly, some songs have been cut or, more audaciously, rewritten thanks to long-time Lutton collaborator Tom Holloway.
And then there’s the dancing.
Lutton has called on WA choreographer Chrissie Parrot to choreograph dancer James O’Hara, who plays the young man of the story. Undoubtedly, Parrot’s distinct style will be utilised to hypnotically draw people deep into Schubert’s dreamscape.
‘I haven’t really worked with her before,’ Capsis said of Parrot, ‘but I have admired her work. Recently when we were in Perth for the opening of the State Theatre, I got to observe her working and have to say I really like her.
‘She has a kindness of spirit, which you don’t always find in the theatre. The combination of her and James is perfect and really lifts the work for me, the physicality of it.
‘Theatre can be so constrained because it uses just words, but dance is one of the most powerful art forms out there at the moment because it pushes you to tell the story through just your body.’
Capsis, too, has a powerful physicality on stage. He shimmers. Literally. His persona and presence mirage together, making it appear that at one moment it’s him – all him – captivating and majestic, but in the next he becomes ambiguous, a slight… ingénue as Old World mother.
This allure is not an illusion. He is no gender bender or drag artist. It is pure Capsis, the rarest breed of actor who can access the entire gender spectrum without batting an eyelid or breaking a nail. He is a transgressor of boundaries.
‘I never set out to do that, it just happened. When I started out I had all these restrictions around me and I just wanted to smash them all and go more into what it was I wasn’t allowed to do. Be a performer.
‘I’ve always been interested in that middle ground of sexuality. I feel comfortable in that middle place. And as I’ve gotten older, I feel much more comfortable being male.
‘But when I was younger I wasn’t so sure about the whole male thing. So I spent a lot of my youth exploring my feminine side. And I think that had a lot to do with growing up with so many strong women in my family. And all my heroes were women. Tough women. Strong women.’
When he hit 40, Capsis said, absolutely everything changed. Irrevocable loss can do that. It is a loss similar to the one experienced by Capsis’ character in Die Winterreise, which Capsis himself is quick to admit is a slightly uncanny affinity to occur: life imitating art imitating life.
The end result has to be witnessed. Particularly with it appearing in the new Studio Underground component of the State Theatre, making it new territory to explore all round: not just in venue, but combination of talents working together and cultural contexts thawing themselves into each other.
Paul Capsis’s advice to young performers?
‘My advice? Just do it. Whatever it is you wanna do – or think you might to do – just do it. The doing answers it eventually. You find your way eventually. I don’t give up, I just keep going. You’ll fall into that place. But you have to trust your instincts.’
Die Winterreise runs from Tuesday April 19 until Saturday April 30 at the State Theatre’s Studio Underground. Tickets are available now. www.bocsticketing.com.au
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
