Paul Capsis

Paul Capsis (b. 1964), singer and actor, was raised by his mother and grandmother in the inner-Sydney suburb of Surry Hills. Capsis has recalled his school years as 'horrific': 'The worst thing I could ever be as a child growing up in Australia in the 70s was a girl. The minute I arrived at school I was vilified and attacked for being effeminate.' Despite consistent bullying and his strict Catholic upbringing, as a teenager Capsis became increasingly drawn to performance and in particular the work of idols such as Janis Joplin, Billie Holliday, Marlene Dietrich, Nina Simone and Edith Piaf, and made his professional debut in a production at Sydney's Stables Theatre in 1988. His cabaret career took off in the early 90s with solo shows such as The Lady is a Camp, which he performed as part of the 1992 Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival; A Pack of Divas (1993), in which he channelled singers including Shirley Bassey, Madonna and Prince; and Burning Sequins (1994), featuring his covers of songs by Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli and others. During the same period, Capsis began making regular appearances on television and in theatre productions for companies including Company B Belvoir, NIDA, the Sydney Theatre Company and the State Theatre Company of South Australia. His numerous subsequent credits include roles in The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1998) for Company B Belvoir; The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1999) for the Melbourne Theatre Company; Three Furies: Scenes from the Life of Francis Bacon (2006) for the Sydney and Adelaide Festivals; and the Victorian Opera Company's 2010 production of The Threepenny Opera. His performance in the 1998 film adaptation of the Christos Tsiolkas novel Head On earned him the Sydney Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor and an AFI nomination in the same category. In 2002, he won the Helpmann Award for Best Live Music Presentation for Capsis vs. Capsis. Twice named Best Artist at Melbourne's Green Room Awards, Capsis won his second Helpmann Award in 2006 for the Malthouse Theatre production of Boulevard Delirium, a show written specifically for him by Barrie Kosky and which had premiered at the Vienna Schauspielhaus during 2002. Capsis and Kosky have since collaborated on projects such as The Lost Echo, for which Capsis won the 2007 Helpmann Award for Best Supporting Actor. His autobiographical show Angela's Kitchen, inspired by the life of his maternal grandmother, earned Capsis the Helpmann Awards for Best Actor and Best New Australian Work in 2012. Capsis has appeared on Broadway in Pinocchio (2015), and garnered further critical acclaim for his portrayal of Quentin Crisp in the one-man show Resident Alien (2016), and for his performance in the Hayes Theatre Company's revival of Cabaret (2016–2017).

Gift of the artist 2017
© Esther Erlich