Paul Capsis is no stranger to Adelaide audiences. Capsis is one of Australia’s most versatile performers. His extensive career has included theatre, live concerts, cabaret, television, and film. He has worked with many leading Australian theatre companies and has performed in Vienna, Valletta, Hong Kong, London, Edinburgh, and New York. In 2021, Capsis was awarded the prestigious Adelaide Cabaret Festival Icon Awards.
This year, Capsis is bringing a very stripped back and vulnerable performance, Dry My Tears, to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. He recently spoke to Glam Adelaide about this show as well as discussing what it is he loves about cabaret.
“It’s freedom. It’s not constrained. It is, but it’s not. Of all the different performing worlds that I have been a part of, cabaret always feels like it’s mine. Or it’s the closest to my own expression,” Paul explained. “When you do a play or a musical or a show, you’re playing a character and you’ve got your script and you’ve got your director and you’ve got your costume design – everything’s been set up before you arrive. Then you have to bring yourself to the role and to the part. Cabaret has always interested me because of what I perceive as the freedoms within it. It expresses sexuality, expresses politics – It can express many different things for the artist doing the cabaret. It can be the closest to their own person in terms of what they present or what we present when we’re on stage. There’s an excitement and there’s an edge that a performer can create in cabaret.”
With such an expansive career, Capsis shared what it was that led him to pursue a career in the performing arts.
“I’m a masochist,” Paul chuckled.
“I think that my interest in performing is the energy of performing, and that’s what I witnessed or perceived in other performers from a very young age and made me want to pursue it. And what is interesting is whatever the difficulties were and are, I’m still interested. I love the community and the collaboration you get in cabaret. I still enjoy the energy of what it feels like to perform. I still love the audience. All those kinds of interesting aspects of all the creative arts.”
Dry My Tears, which is Capsis’ 2023 Cabaret Festival offering, is a rather stripped back show, compared to other shows we have seen him in.
“This is the first time I’ve ever really performed in this manner, as in I’m not really relying on what I call, ‘Channel My Favourite Dead Divas’. But this show is not relying on that. I feel very naked on stage with this show. I feel very exposed. It’s a bit nerve wracking because also, I think people have an idea of me and how I would perform normally. Whereas here this is just me and I’m singing. And what I go into with each song is storytelling, getting to the crux of the lyrics without any kind of tricks.”
Capsis explained where the idea behind Dry My Tears originated from — Francis Greep, who will be accompanying him on piano during the show.
“When Francis approached me, he told me he knows I like to do all the women singers and he knows I do all this sort of big stuff, but he really wanted to see me do a whole set as me with my voice, my singing, my interpretation of songs. I initially rolled my eyes. And then I thought that I wanted to take on this challenge. It pushed me outside of my comfort zone, especially singing songs in other languages – singing songs in French, singing German, singing difficult songs, songs that are quite tricky to sing, lyric-wise.
“It’s also the way Francis came to the songs. For example, there’s an Elton John piece and you think, ‘I know this song. I’ve heard it a million times. Why do you really want to do this song?’ Then you hear Francis’ approach and it really draws out the lyrics in such a way. It’s going to be interesting doing it, because we’ve always done the show acoustic.”
In Dry My Tears, Capsis pays homage to Kurt Weill and John Kander.
“I think they access something about storytelling which is unique, different from how most lyricists approach the work. Initially, Francis’ idea was that we would do a whole show in the Kurt Weill style because there’s so much material. I’ve always wanted to do something like that because I love the worlds those writers have created, including Kander and Ebb. Cabaret is still my favourite film, still my favourite show, still my favourite role that I’ve ever played in any show I’ve ever done, which is saying a lot.”
Capsis is very excited to be returning to Adelaide and to be performing in the Dunstan Playhouse.
“I’m excited to be performing in the Dunstan Playhouse because of what I feel will happen there. There’s a lot of support in terms of the lighting and in terms of the world we can create in a venue like that. Normally we’ve been doing it in rooms with just one light. Adelaide is also one of my favourite places to perform. I have such a long, wonderful history with Adelaide. It’s where I’ve done some of my more complex performances. Also, being awarded the Cabaret Festival Icon Award in 2021 makes Adelaide even more special.”
Dry My Tears will be performed at the Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre on Friday 23 June at 6pm. Tickets can be purchased at: https://cabaret.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/whats-on/dry-my-tears .
Interviewed by Ben Stefanoff
Photo credit: Jacquie Manning
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