“Oh, daaarling,” she purrs, “Other people’s trash is my glamour. I’m a gypsy; home has always been in my suitcase.”

The queen of post-punk cabaret returns to Melbourne next week with Vamp, her latest sideshow of debauchery and sin. Billed as an excursion into the history of the eternal femme fatale, Meow Meow will conjure the spirits of the most alluring seductresses, cheats, and black widows of our time. From the goddesses of the silver screen to the vampires of ancient mythology by way of Madonna, Vamp explores the lives lived - and sometimes lost - by the beautiful and the damned.

As well as channeling those iconic females whose lives were cut short by a too-much-too-soon existence, Meow Meow is even more excited at the prospect of reviving the ghosts of those divas who lived well into maturity.

“For some reason we have this fascination to live fast and die young,” she says. “What I’m interested in is the process of age.

“I remember coming across this photograph of faded Russian silent cinema star Alla Nazimova smoking a cigarette. She is the epitome of sexual honesty and liberation.”

Accompanied by cinematic and aerial performance, Meow Meow promises to captivate her hometown fans at the Malthouse Theatre, having wowed spectators around the world from Shanghai to New York with her distinct brand of ‘kamikaze cabaret’.

As well as having reaped numerous international awards and residencies she recently won the 2008 Adelaide Fringe Award for Best Cabaret. For her new show, under the direction of Michael Kantor and choreographer Shaun Parker, she’ll be underscored live on stage by her own traveling gypsy band. With original compositions by Iain Grandage, Meow Meow and her ensemble of misfits will take on a blend of musical genres to guide us through this “concert for lost souls”.

She is no stranger to rebellion, having previously collaborated with such renowned artists as Hedwig and the Angry Inch creator John Cameron Mitchell, and China’s most controversial contemporary dancer and first acknowledged transsexual, Jin Xing. And it looks like there’ll be no shortage of surprises this time round.

“These issues are my work; they’ve always been a part of what I do. I often forget that the world can be so prudent. For me, it’s incredibly important to be honest in my work and sexuality and gender can never be absent from what I do.”

So Meow Meow’s a bit of an icon then?

“I’m a hag, a fag, a fag hag and a bag hag,” she snorts. “My mother once said to me, ‘I’m not at all surprised by what you do; you’ve always been attracted to beauty’. I think she was right.”

Vamp at the Merlyn Theatre, CUB Malthouse, Southbank from September 4 – 20. www.malthousetheatre.com.au

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