Chauvel Cinema, Paddington Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras 2016
28th February SOLD OUT
29th February SELLING FAST
1st March JUST ADDED
Drag superstar, Youtube sensation, ‘accidental’ activist and comedy queen Panti, returns to Sydney for a bespoke Mardi Gras show about sex, love, politics…and sex.
In between making movies and playing a central role in Ireland’s recent Marriage Equality triumph, gender discombobulist Panti has spent the past two years touring her smash-hit shows to packed houses and rave reviews around the globe.
Following a string of sold out nights in Sydney in 2014 and 2015, Panti returns to the city that has made her feel so very (very) welcome, despite the 1am lockout.
Infusing raucous stand-up with trademark polemic, Panti arrives with salacious tales about her adventures across Australia thus far, and has a thing or three to say to anyone standing in the way of marriage equality down under.
In a first for the now legendary drag superstar, Panti will create a special Sydney Mardi Gras edition of story, stand up and music for old friends and new followers in the sumptuous setting of Paddington’s Chauvel Cinema.
Panti exclaims: “Despite an unfortunate and traumatising picnic at Hanging Rock, Australia has always been good to me. In particular, Sydney has always shown this ageing showgirl a good time, and I've been delighted to reap the benefits of the low standards of the city's amorous homosexuals. So in return I've decided to do the giving for once! I'll be bringing my old-lady glamour to Paddington’s Chauvel Cinema where I'll be passing on some of my hard-earned wisdom on life, love, and marriage equality. With glitter. It's the least I can do.”
In addition to this never-to-be-repeated theatre event, Panti will be once again leading the acclaimed Sydney Queer Irish float at the Mardi Gras parade on March 5th, with a very special message for audiences everywhere.
According to Fran Bowron Co-Chair of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras: “Panti’s participation in the Parade and her show 'Rooting for Australia' reminds us all of what can be achieved when we work together and that every journey is important.”
Presented by THISISPOPBABY in association with Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras and Irish Consulate General.
‘funny and vulgar, dignified and dishy, sometimes earnest, never acid.’ – New York Times
‘Your first encounter with the phenomenal drag queen Panti is a little like suddenly discovering a new planet in the solar system.’ - The Irish Times
ROOTING FOR AUSTRALIA
When: Sunday 28th February (SOLD OUT), Monday 29th February & Tuesday 1st March (JUST ADDED)
Where: Chauvel Cinema, 249 Oxford Street, Paddington, NSW 2021
Time: 7.30pm
Duration: 70 minutes, no interval
Tickets: $35 + booking fees
Book: On sale now from www.thisispopbaby.com/book
PANTI
PANTI is Ireland's foremost "gender discombobulist” and “accidental activist”.
After attending art college in Dublin in the late 80’s she moved to Tokyo where she began her drag career as part of successful double act called “Candi Panti”. Returning to Ireland in the mid 90’s she became a fixture of Dublin’s nightclub scene. She ran some of Ireland’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.
Panti made her theatrical debut in 2007 with the critically acclaimed In These Shoes? and since then has toured extensively across Ireland, the UK, Europe, North America and Australia with her shows A Woman In Progress, All Dolled Up, Restitched, and High Heels In Low Places.
In early 2014, Panti landed herself in the middle of a media sh*tstorm that rocked Ireland and was christened “Pantigate”. Soon after, she became a YouTube sensation when a speech she made at the Abbey Theatre about homophobia, lauded as “the most eloquent Irish speech in two hundred years”, went viral. It was broadcast around the world, debated in parliament, remixed by the Pet Shop Boys, and sparked a powerful conversation about equality.
Panti became an iconic figure for equality in Ireland, and in 2015 she played a major role in the successful referendum campaign for Marriage Equality in Ireland.
Panti’s memoir Woman In The Making became a bestseller in Ireland in 2014, and in 2015 a documentary film about her life, The Queen Of Ireland, was released in the UK & Ireland and broke box office records for an Irish documentary.
Panti has received many awards including a “Person Of The Year Award” and an honorary doctorate from Trinity College Dublin. Panti continues to appear regularly on stage and screen, and is much in demand internationally as a speaker. She can also be found in her popular Dublin city centre bar, Pantibar.
THISISPOPBABY
A dynamic and ground-breaking Irish theatre and events production company, THISISPOPBABY events have played to over 75,000 people in the past seven years.
In that time, the company has had fifteen sold-out theatre shows, won four major awards (including Best New Play in the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards for Trade by Mark O’Halloran) and been nominated for sixteen more; successfully toured to the UK, Australia, USA and France; 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.
