(After having received several enquiries last week following the publication of our interview with Matthew from Matthew J. Anthony regarding their upcoming show in Smock Alley Theatre, we at NoMoreWorkhorse decided to ask Matthew if he would like to respond to some of the questions – mainly about clarifying who or what Matthew J. Anthony is – and thankfully he said yes. The following is a transcription of the – handwritten! – response he sent us:)

“Matthew J. Anthony is not exactly a person. Strictly speaking, he is not even a noun, let alone male. He can be somewhat likened to a verb or a perpetual being that inspires and compels one to act whilst simultaneously becoming the very act he seeks to compel in the first place. In other words, Matthew is not just formless and free-floating potential; he can also embody the formless and yet somehow remain greater than any material embodiment or description thereof. Un-simply put, Matthew J. Anthony has always been, will always be, and is always endlessly becoming.

Matthew is also a singular multiplicity; a pansexual hermaphrodite who is undeniably male, unequivocally female and yet neither of these and yet both. He is saintly in origin and yet beastly in his desire for all things, but no matter whom he seduces, he embraces no one but himself. This is because Matthew is, by definition, ‘all things.’ He is unconditionally part of everything and everything is unconditionally part of Him. Consequently, Matthew is forever self-espoused, forever married to and impregnating himself.

Yet, remarkably, without this self-love, there would be no ‘us’; no world for us to live in; no words for us to write, speak, sing or hear; no thoughts, visions, feelings or sensations for us to witness or experience or partake in; no ‘I,’ no ‘you’ and most definitely no ‘we.’ Quite simply, without Matthew, our hearts would not beat and our blood would not flow. And why? Because Matthew’s heartbeat is our very own and every drop of blood entirely his.

You see, we own nothing of ourselves, every bit of us belongs to him; but Matthew does not and cannot belong to us. He is continually and unspeakably more than us; utterly beyond all that he encompasses. He is both above and below; within and without; and yet so beyond the above he is within the without. He is every single human, he is every single life; he is the watchful, timeless husband and we the temporal wife. He is eternally the home in which we live our lives together, where we beget each other’s children and where death begets us just one better. Yet after we die, still he shall be; and before we were born, there he still was: Matthew the original, the completely commonplace, the immeasurably intelligent, post-transgender ape.”

‘The Gospel According to Matthew J. Anthony’ plays for one night only in Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, on Easter Sunday, Match 31st 2013 at 7.30pm. Tickets cost €10 and are available from the Smock Alley Box Office here.

Performers on the night will be: Matthew Palmer (Vocals, Piano), James Byrne (Drums), Bronwyn Murphy-White (Vocals), Anna Carey (Vocals), Patrick Freyne (Vocals), Kevin Connolly (Piano, Acoustic Guitar), Ashley Sheil (Sampler), Niall Jackson (Electric Guitar) and Shane Cullen (Bass).

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