What’s the central premise of your show? Wake up – throw yourself into the glorious madness of life. Like every woke Elizabethan dude, Mr WH (Shakespeare’s outrageous boyfriend-muse) carries Yorick’s skull to remember that death comes to us all. Life is fleeting – we are soon forgotten – so celebrate the persistence of love against the tyranny of time.
Is your show based on your true-life experiences? Evensong was created when I was living rough on the streets of Sydney. The script grew out of that experience of being lost and invisible to conventional society for 18 months.
What was the creative process like putting the show together? Rehearsal is an adventure when the only venue available is a public park bench. Being some mad bloke channelling Lear in the local doggy-park is one thing. Singing 17th-century songs over drum ‘n bass or trip-hop, is a lot more disconcerting.
How does your show play with convention? Authentic performance is too narrowly interpreted. I reckon what’s authentic is to imagine how composers would want to sound if they were writing today. Great music is timeless – John Dowland’s #1 album of 1603 is still fresh in 2018, especially grooved over modern EDM, urban, punk, and jazz.
What do you love about performing? In exploring other lives you get to expand your own. Portraying ‘an old man playing a young boy playing a woman’ challenged my ideas about how gender and age are performed. Playing a selection of feisty and enthralling female characters added new layers to my understanding of my own masculinity.
