This kitten’s got claws

NICK BOND
www.bnews.net.au

When you’re preparing to interview someone with a famous, fabulous alter ego, it can be hard to know who you’re going to get. For instance, a recent chat with Sarah Ward, a.k.a. Yana Alana, revealed that behind Yana’s foul-mouthed bluster lay quite a fragile, sensitive artist.

Waiting for my interview with cabaret queen Meow Meow, I wondered whether I would be able to peek behind this performer’s mask in similar fashion. Would I be talking to Meow Meow, the decadent torch singer known for traversing musical styles from opera to punk? Or would I be granted an audience with Melissa Madden Gray, the woman behind this creation?

All questions are answered the second Meow Meow picks up the phone, during a lunch break in rehearsals for the Melbourne season of Vamp.

Hello, darling -” I’ve got a mouthful at the moment, but it’s not what you think, she purrs.

It’s an odd, plummy accent, reminiscent of the clipped, transatlantic speech patterns of Kylie and Madonna, and it gives very little indication of her Melbourne heritage. As I discover several times during our chat, to even suggest that Meow Meow has something as dull as a hometown, a birthplace, is to commit a shocking faux pas. Any hint of normality is skilfully batted away. Observe:

You’re in rehearsals at the moment, are you?

Rehearsals? No, no, no -” it’s just a glamour-fest.

Vamp is a Michael Kantor-directed production (Well, he’s attempting to direct me -” I can be a handful) and it’s a bold deconstruction of the image of the femme fatale. The irrepressible diva will even swing for her supper.

I’m known for my crowd-surfing and such, but this will be a new take on it -” there is a trapeze. I perform with a band, and they’re quite an exquisite gypsy punk orchestra. This piece is all original music written by the divine Iain Grandage, with lyrics -” doggerel -” by me.

Thankfully, in an era where the roots of cabaret seem to have been lost and the medium has morphed into inoffensive light entertainment, Meow Meow is committed to taking cabaret back to its political origins.

I align [my show] to what real cabaret is, which is fairly without rules and is really based on an intimacy with the audience. That’s the beauty, for me, of live performance. Political cabaret is always dealing with the body and with sexuality. For me, the body is always going to be interesting -” whether it’s to do with censorship or repression of the body, it’s all sadly relevant.

Meow sees the blanding out of modern cabaret as part of a bigger problem infecting the arts as a whole.

There’s so much that’s utterly predictable in television and films, and we keep missing the point of live flesh in a space -” what could happen. You can just walk out and leave, I could just pass out on stage, or I could lie on the floor and cry for the whole show.

It’s this sense of danger that makes a Meow Meow performance so exciting to watch. She admits it’s a struggle juggling the entertainment aspects of cabaret with the political.

I have to laugh at myself. And I get terribly distressed about the state of the world, so I have to try and find a balance with that. I guess I live my life on stage as I do off -” I’m open.

This seems like as good a time as any to bring up the topic of the New York resident’s local heritage.

So, you’re originally from Melbourne, I begin. As soon as the words have left my mouth, she’s off.

No! Oh my God. People like to label me, but I’m not into labels. I just find that all very limiting. And you -”

I draw a deep breath, fearing that Meow Meow may yet show her claws.

We are from a gay newspaper, are we not?

Yes, we are, I reply meekly -” momentarily awestruck by her regal use of the collective we.

Well, sometimes the Island Of The Gays likes to label, but I think most of us are into a more fluid system of existence, aren’t we?

I’m suddenly preoccupied with figuring out the exact location of this fabled Island Of The Gays. Before I take leave to scour my atlas, it’s time for goodbyes. With all this campness, I offer, the gays must love you.

The gays do love me, comes her reply, quick as lightning.

What’s not to love?

info: Meow Meow’s Vamp plays at the Sydney Opera House from 24 September. Bookings: www.sydneyoperahouse.com.