Accidental Activist Panti Bliss Comes to Sydney
Ireland's High Queen, Performance Giant, and Accidental Activist
Panti Bliss is headed to Sydney, Australia for Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
to perform her smash hit comedy show, High Heels in Low Places at The Vanguard on Wednesday 04 and Thursday 05 March, 2015. Panti will also walk the Parade on Mardi Gras night of nights, leading the brand new Irish Australian float on
Saturday 07 March 2015.
No
stranger to the limelight, Panti landed herself in the middle of a
media sh*tstorm christened ‘Pantigate’
that rocked Ireland in 2014. Soon after, she became a Youtube sensation
when a speech she made about homophobia went viral, was broadcast
around the world, debated in parliament and remixed by the Pet Shop Boys
- sparking a powerful conversation about equality.
Presented by THISISPOPBABY, High Heels in Low Places is
Panti’s riotous stand-up about life after ‘Pantigate’,
which played to rave reviews and chock-a-block houses across Ireland.
Critics called it “Hilarious” (Hotpress) and “a wickedly funny evening”
(Irish Independent) with “impeccable one-liners” (The
Evening Herald).
Charting
brushes with infamy, near misses with fame, and adventures in the seedy
underbelly of Ireland,
Panti invites you in to her hyper-real, stiletto-shaped, Mardi
Gras-tastic world, in a storytelling tour de force where she promises to
‘say the un-sayable’.
“I
can't wait to bring my old lady glamour to Sydney for Mardi Gras and
make a fool of myself over some cheeky Aussie bloke I meet
at a barbie. That has been my lifelong dream! But before I elope to the
Northern Territories with Bruce, I'll be taking part in the MG parade
and doing some shows in The Vanguard, and I'm equally as excited about
that. And so is Bruce. He's very supportive
of my career.” says Panti.
Proudly
supported by the Consulate General of Ireland, the Irish Australian
float will be the first ever entry into the Parade to
have first, second and third generation Irish Australians marching
together. Helmed by Ireland’s “National F**cking Treasure”, Panti Bliss,
and in a sea of green glitter, the float will be a representation of
modern Irish love, and of what it means to be an
LGBTQI person of Irish heritage in Australia.
“We
want to celebrate the special relationship between Ireland and
Australia with our Mardi Gras entry” says organiser of the float,
Lorna Markey Hennessy. “We have so much shared history, and so much in
common now as two forward - looking nations who want to celebrate
equality and love for all, all around the world. And we want it to be a
great party, obviously!”
Those
who are interested in joining the Irish Australian float can register
their interest via the groups Facebook Page (HYPERLINK
TO PAGE)
What: High Heels in Low Places
When: Wednesday 04 and Thursday 05 March,
2015
Time: Doors open 6:30pm. 9pm show.
Tickets: $32.80 General Admission //
$68.20 Meal & Show Packages // $123.60 Premium Package
For further information on the 2015 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival program and to buy tickets, visit
www.mardigras.org.au.
EDITORS NOTES
PANTI BLISS
Former Tokyo club scene doyenne,
PANTI
is
Ireland's foremost gender illusionist. She has run some of Dublin's
most seminal club nights, and hosted and produced the legendary
Alternative Miss Ireland
pageant, which raised money over 18 years for HIV/AIDS charities in
Ireland. She is landlady of Pantibar in Dublin, where she performs a
weekly drag show -The Pantishow.
Panti made her theatrical debut in 2007 with the critically acclaimed, sold-out
In These Shoes? From there, she was invited to create All Dolled Up
for The Dublin Fringe Festival. As a direct result, Panti
was commissioned by Project Arts Centre and THISISPOPBABY to create a new piece for the Dublin Theatre Festival called
A Woman in Progress. In July 2013, we created All Dolled Up Restitched, a reimagining of her three hit shows, which played at the Peacock Theatre in the Abbey, and went on to tour Australia.
Panti’s latest collaboration with THISISPOPBABY –
High Heels in Low Places – is a response to the social,
political and media maelstrom that erupted earlier this year known as
‘Pantigate’. The show played to packed houses in Dublin’s Vicar Street,
Cork’s Opera House and Galway International Arts
Festival this summer and we are about to embark on a further national
tour in November. High Heels in Low Places is not about Pantigate, it is
more about life
after Pantigate, along with other brushes with infamy that Panti has had in a life well lived. It’s a comedy.
PANTIGATE
In January 2014,
Panti
appeared on the Saturday Night Show on Ireland’s national
broadcaster RTE, where she asserted that journalists and organisations
that actively campaign for LGBT citizens to have less rights than their
straight counterparts, were in effect homophobic. Those named threatened
to sue the broadcaster, and were subsequently
paid €85,000
in damages. The payout resulted in public and media outcry in Ireland,
with the affair promptly being named ‘PantiGate’. Support for
Panti was expressed from the houses of parliament to the
front pages of the national newspapers.
On 1 February 2014, in an act of solidarity, the Abbey Theatre invited
Panti to speak after the final performance of historical
drama ‘The Risen People’. She spoke about oppression and homophobia: “The
word ‘homophobia’ is no longer available to gay people, which is a
spectacular and neat Orwellian trick, because now it turns out that gay
people are not the victims of homophobia
– homophobes are.” A video of the speech was posted on YouTube, and
within hours it had gone viral with celebrities including Graham
Norton, Stephen Fry, Martina Navratalova, Alan Cumming, RuPaul and even
Madonna all sending words of support and solidarity.
To date Panti’s ‘Noble Call’ speech has been viewed over
700,000 times, reported about widely in international media, and was recently put to music by pop royalty, Pet Shop Boys.
SINCE PANTIGATE
February
"Team
Panti" phenomenon - shops and cafes all over Ireland start putting up
signs and posters in their windows that read I'M ON TEAM PANTI.
Panti was also the subject of parliamentary debate in Ireland and raised in European parliament.
March
Guest of Honour at St Pats For All Parade in Queens, NYC - The press go nuts as Mayor Bill de Blasio muscles in for
a photo op with Panti.
March
Given proclamation by New York City Council at a ceremony at City Hall Manhattan.
April
Inspired by Panti's 'Noble Call' speech, Pet Shop Boys pen a
dance track, using Panti's speech in its entirety as the vocal part.
Named, The Best Gay Possible, they open their American tour with the
track.
June
Special guest at Berlin Pride - Shares the stage with Eurovison winner Conchita Wurst.
June-July
Panti and THISISPOPBABY present High Heels in Low Places in
Vicar Street Dublin, Cork Opera House and Galway Arts Centre. A second
national tour of the show takes place throughout November and December.
August
Filmmakers launch crowdfunding campaign to complete their "Queen of Ireland" documentary about Panti. Campaign was
successful and documentary will be completed in 2015.
September
A
sold-out TEDx talk given in September was released on Youtube in
January 2015, a year after her appearance on the
Saturday Night Show that started the whole shenanigans. The video
lights up the internet again - racking up 75K hits in five days...and
counting.
October
Attitude
Magazine Award - Panti hangs out with Graham Norton, Conchita Wurst and
Jonathon Ross - she is the highlight of the awards ceremony. Acceptance
speech online
November
Writes a bestselling book – A Woman in the Making. Reaches number 4 in the Irish book charts and is listed as the 3rd
best book of the year on RTE's Joe Duffy's Books of the year.
December
Irish Person of the Year Award - Stephen Fry flies to Dublin to present Panti with award.
ABOUT SYDNEY GAY AND LESBIAN MARDI GRAS
Sydney
Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is the non-for-profit member-based
organisation that produces the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade
and
Festival as well as number of other events throughout the year. SGLMG
exists primarily to develop the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras for
the benefit of Sydney’s LGBTQI community, the enjoyment of a wider
audience and as a global beacon of diversity, acceptance
and LGBTQI rights.
THISISPOPBABY
A
dynamic and ground-breaking Irish theatre and events production
company, THISISPOPBABY events have played to over 70,000 people in the
past seven years.
In that time, the company has had fourteen sold-out theatre shows, won
four major awards (including Best New Play in the Irish Times Irish
Theatre Awards 2011 for Trade by Mark O’Halloran) and been nominated for
sixteen more; successfully toured to the UK and
Australia; ran an alternative late-night arena at Electric Picnic Music
Festival from 2008-2010; created Queer Notions, Ireland’s queer arts
festival at Project Arts Centre; and regularly rips up history with
performance art club WERK (Best Night Out, Sunday
Times 2010).
Recently, THISISPOPBABY toured to Australia with Panti’s All Dolled Up
Restitched, culminating in an epic WERK club at Melbourne Festival; and electropop musical
Alice in Funderland, produced by the Abbey Theatre, was nominated
for Best Production and Best Set Design at the Irish Times Irish
Theatre Awards 2013.
