KEY POINTS:
When English eccentric and flamboyant gay Quentin Crisp visited Auckland during an Australasian tour in 1978, he told a Herald reporter he had felt physically frightened about visiting Australia and the "poofter bashers" he might meet there.
After touring the lucky country, he was happy to say his reception was actually "very nice and very cosy".
Then aged a sprightly 70 years (Crisp lived until he was 90, dying in 1999), the Herald reporter told him, "You have come full circle from ostracism to acceptance."
"You have come full circle. I have stayed the way I was," Crisp shot back.
Crisp, born Denis Pratt, became an international gay icon in the 1970s after the publication of his memoir The Naked Civil Servant, which was made into a highly acclaimed telemovie in 1975, starring John Hurt.
The success of the book and the movie allowed Crisp the financial freedom to move to New York in 1981 and launch a new career as a performer - and as a "sing for his supper" dinner guest, wildly popular for his wit, anecdotes and one-liners.
Crisp may have found fame in the latter stages of his life but he'd always been true to himself.
He changed his name from Pratt to Crisp in his early 20s and adopted an extreme effeminate persona that frequently provoked physical attacks on the streets of London.
He wore makeup, painted his long nails and dyed his elaborately coiffed hair. Hating housework, he lived in squalor, famously remarking that when it came to piles of dust, "after the first four years it doesn't get any worse".
British writer Tim Fountain's one-man play Resident Alien, based on the writings and life of Crisp, opened at the Bush Theatre in London in November 1999.
Crisp never saw it. He was too busy, travelling from New York to Manchester to launch a tour of a new show, An Evening With Quentin Crisp. He died in Manchester on November 21.
The show - starring drag artist Bette Bourne - had a sell-out season in New York in 2001 and has since toured the US, Britain and Australia.
Auckland actor John Watson discovered Resident Alien by accident in mid-2006 while digging through the drama section of Auckland Central Library.
He took it home, laughed a lot (and cried a little), and decided to try and stage the play here. It took some time to get the rights, which had to be approved by Tim Fountain's agents.
"They asked me for the name of my company. I don't have a company."
But Watson, aged 59, does have a long acting CV stretching back to 1972, working in theatre companies such as the NZ Players Drama Quartet, Theatre Corporate, the Mercury, Court Theatre and Centrepoint. He has also been involved in a substantial amount of radio and television work.
As an economic reality, he teaches English as a second language.
Resident Alien marks his first time on the stage in 15 years.
"The play is set in 1999, an hour-and-a-half of Quentin's day," he says.
"It's lunchtime and he's waiting for someone to come. In the second half, they didn't arrive so he talks directly to the audience, telling them about his life, the wonderful things that happened to him and the stuff he went through.
"He had a rugged, rugged life but he did have a philosophy which he held on to with both hands: 'I am an individual and I have that right to be an individual'."
While Watson has received $2500 towards the production from Arts Alive, all other costs are self-funded. It's testimony to his capabilities that the production has attracted strong support in the form of director Amanda Rees and design team John Parker, Andrew Malmo and Kirsty Cameron - who were all told from the outset that "there was no money in it".
Watson has shaved off his beard for the part, and is loving the Crisp wig, made by Annette Beaney, plus the eyeliner, eyebrow pencil, lipstick and pancake makeup.
He is also having no problem flashing his "beautifully manicured" pink-polished toenails when he goes to Takapuna Beach each afternoon for a swim to counter the exhausting rehearsal process.
PERFORMANCE
What: Resident Alien
Where and when: Tapac, Western Springs, to Feb 23 (all performances at 8pm; Feb 17 at 6pm);
see www.ticketmaster.co.nz
