Panti Bliss takes us on a monologue of life for queer folk in Ireland. Often bawdy and hilarious, there are serious questions posed about the difficult and dangerous path it can be to stand up and fight for your right to exist.
Panti is the celebrity alter-ego of Rory O’Neill who comes from County Mayo, Ireland. Born into a strict Catholic upbringing, his family are featured in his tales from the Panti pulpit.
His father was a veterinary surgeon, and he credits this as giving him an understanding and tolerance to the messiness of humans and their affairs. Not everyone fits into neat categories
O’Neill, when he is made up as Bliss has an uncanny resemblance to Barry Humphries and his most famous creation, Dame Edna Everage. Performing in drag is not restricted to gay men. The importance is in the liberation and freedom to create yourself.
Find yourself? It is far more important to create yourself! (Bob Dylan, No Direction Home).
Panti swooshes on stage to some fanfare.
Starts picking out the audience members to riff off, quickly reassuring to all that this is not really an audience participation gig.
It is clear a large number present tonight are of the Rainbow community, and are vocal in their support.
Panti Bliss is a passionate advocate for gay rights and gay marriage, and this culminated in a well-received documentary about his life and activism. The Queen of Ireland (2015), a documentary movie centred around his life, was shot over several years.
Maybe the funniest of the stories tonight related to being invited to a premier screening of the movie in Austria and orchestrating a Brazilian pretend partner for the occasion.
Here he brings out the full Dame Edna in perfect comedy timing.
O’Neill is in his latter Fifties which he is quick to remind us. As a young man he gives us an idea as to how it felt to be technically a criminal by being his natural self.
He outlines the cost of this in repression, violence, shame and the hidden life. Although he tells us becoming a drag queen was an act of defiance and a battle line drawn, we get a glimpse of the courage it took.
He felt rejected by his own country and so he found himself in …Japan of course.
The audience there heard Ireland as Iceland. Why not, he was heavily made up and costumed anyway. At one stage he found himself dancing with Cyndi Lauper.
Of course, Grrls just wanna have fun, and they also can’t stop messing with the danger zone (She Bop).
O’Neill connects his moment as an activist to Punk as a social movement. There are several stories about the origin of the name. Reliably it came from New York City originally. Punk was prison slang for gay.
One of the early anthems was the Tom Robinson Band and Glad to Be Gay. First released in 1976 and banned by the BBC. The band was directly influenced by the Sex Pistols.
Here in New Zealand as a teen, Punk exploded in 1978. Homophobia was rife and a blight as the social politics was being upended. Amazing to look back on it now and reflect that the Homosexual Law Reform Act was passed in 1986.
Despite all the angst and upheaval around it there has been a sea change, and the Gay dollar is as powerful as the Gay vote.
All this left Panti Bliss wondering. What does it mean to be a drag queen now?
A large part of his show revolves around his activist role.
He may be preaching to the converted here, but he does address the rise in the Far-Right groups.
The recent counter-protests around the Gay Pride marches of the weekend get a mention. Panti is defiant with a shield tempered by battle.
Panti Bliss as the Queen of Ireland is riotously funny as he detonates a few bombs along the way.
Rev. Orange Peel
Panti Bliss If These Wigs Coud Talk plays at the Civic Wintergarden until 23 February 2025. Tickets are available HERE.
