In the mid 1970s when the Nimrod Theatre Company left its original premises (the Stables, Nimrod Street, Kings Cross) and built a new theatre in Belvoir Street, Surry Hills, we provided ourselves with a Downstairs rehearsal room slash performance space, and a lot of the Company’s most innovative work evolved there – promenade performances, new Australian plays and cabaret. One of the liveliest of the latter was the extraordinary “Burlesco” devised by Martin Raphael and Michael Matou
This was the kind of cabaret which took elements of The Purple Onion, Les Girls and other Kings Cross drag shows and spun them in a mixmaster of anarchy, bawdry, slapstick and colourful mime. I doubt Sydney had seen anything quite like “Burlesco” and certainly nothing like the statuesque and elastic figure of Michael Matou. He set his stamp on the Nimrod Downstairs and won a new audience to the venue. “Burlesco” remains one of my most vivid memories of that period, and I have no doubt its echoes are still reverberating in the Australian cabaret scene some thirty years later
John Bell AO OBE
Artistic Director
Bell Shakespeare Company
What you hold in your hands is an extraordinary chronicle of an extremely important piece of theatrical history. It is also more than that. It is a love story
The first time I saw Michael Matou was in the Piccolo Bar in Sydney’s Kings Cross. Over a cup of Vittorio’s great coffee I paused in my conversation with the singer Jeannie Lewis and, pointing to a photograph pinned to the wall, asked her “Who’s that?” “Michael Matou”, she replied, then added, “He’s amazing.” Little did I know that within a few years Michael’s world and mine would intersect and in the most unexpected of places
The Illusion Circus Theatre Company was based in the wilds of Tasmania. It was not the kind of place one would expect to attract performers from the heart of Kings Cross. But by now I knew of Michael's work with Lindsay Kemp and with Martin Raphael
Michael agreed to direct Store at Room Temperature for us. He also agreed, reluctantly, to play the lead in Foreplay and Afterglow opposite the fine Tasmanian actress, Helen Haigh. Michael threw himself into rehearsals. Given his theatrical history, it was no wonder he felt daunted. Not only did he have to learn a lengthy script, but he had to perform it stripped of all his usual array of costumes, wigs and make-up. It was a brave decision, for as he said “I have never done a straight acting role in my life.”
It was a big ask, for his character was a conservative married man who finds himself unexpectedly attracted to a married woman. Throughout the play, from the initial eye contact to the final orgasm, Michael had nothing to rely on but his voice, as the characters spoke only in the third person and never to each other. Neither did they physically touch. Yet Michael produced an amazing performance that had the audience gasping and some with tears in their eyes. This was Matou, unadorned, and on a stage devoid of theatrical lighting, scenery or props, he was spellbinding. From the moment Michael, seated in the beginning amongst the audience, began to speak, he held the crowd in the palm of his hands
With Michael’s death, the world lost a superb creative mind and a truly remarkable character. Thanks to Martin, he lives on in this book
The work of Martin Raphael and Michael Matou deserves far greater prominence and this book should ensure that occurs
Sandy McCutcheon
Author, Playwright, Broadcaster
This was the kind of cabaret which took elements of The Purple Onion, Les Girls and other Kings Cross drag shows and spun them in a mixmaster of anarchy, bawdry, slapstick and colourful mime. I doubt Sydney had seen anything quite like “Burlesco” and certainly nothing like the statuesque and elastic figure of Michael Matou. He set his stamp on the Nimrod Downstairs and won a new audience to the venue. “Burlesco” remains one of my most vivid memories of that period, and I have no doubt its echoes are still reverberating in the Australian cabaret scene some thirty years later
John Bell AO OBE
Artistic Director
Bell Shakespeare Company
What you hold in your hands is an extraordinary chronicle of an extremely important piece of theatrical history. It is also more than that. It is a love story
The first time I saw Michael Matou was in the Piccolo Bar in Sydney’s Kings Cross. Over a cup of Vittorio’s great coffee I paused in my conversation with the singer Jeannie Lewis and, pointing to a photograph pinned to the wall, asked her “Who’s that?” “Michael Matou”, she replied, then added, “He’s amazing.” Little did I know that within a few years Michael’s world and mine would intersect and in the most unexpected of places
The Illusion Circus Theatre Company was based in the wilds of Tasmania. It was not the kind of place one would expect to attract performers from the heart of Kings Cross. But by now I knew of Michael's work with Lindsay Kemp and with Martin Raphael
Michael agreed to direct Store at Room Temperature for us. He also agreed, reluctantly, to play the lead in Foreplay and Afterglow opposite the fine Tasmanian actress, Helen Haigh. Michael threw himself into rehearsals. Given his theatrical history, it was no wonder he felt daunted. Not only did he have to learn a lengthy script, but he had to perform it stripped of all his usual array of costumes, wigs and make-up. It was a brave decision, for as he said “I have never done a straight acting role in my life.”
It was a big ask, for his character was a conservative married man who finds himself unexpectedly attracted to a married woman. Throughout the play, from the initial eye contact to the final orgasm, Michael had nothing to rely on but his voice, as the characters spoke only in the third person and never to each other. Neither did they physically touch. Yet Michael produced an amazing performance that had the audience gasping and some with tears in their eyes. This was Matou, unadorned, and on a stage devoid of theatrical lighting, scenery or props, he was spellbinding. From the moment Michael, seated in the beginning amongst the audience, began to speak, he held the crowd in the palm of his hands
With Michael’s death, the world lost a superb creative mind and a truly remarkable character. Thanks to Martin, he lives on in this book
The work of Martin Raphael and Michael Matou deserves far greater prominence and this book should ensure that occurs
Sandy McCutcheon
Author, Playwright, Broadcaster
