Panti Bliss and Tara Flynn take on modern Ireland
The convent chose two pieces from very different freedom activists to put side by side on the stage Peacock: Obsessed with Tara Flynn at 7 p.m. and If These Wigs Could Talk to Panti Bliss at 9:15 p.m.
This is scheduled to be seen in parallel, with the availability of food “bits” at alternating hour-long intervals. They were featured in a co-production with Thisispopbaby.
Danny La Rue, a late Corkman, was Ireland’s first famous drag performer, and showed up in a spotless mens evening gown at the end of his show, a closing act. perfect for performance. Beneath the feather boa, Danny is a friend, a message.
Miss Panti Bliss, aka Rory O’Neill, went one step further.
Feeling excluded from Irish society during his days as a student at the art school in Dublin, the young O’Neill adopted the name Miss Panti. Panti is hurting and has no reason to hide it.
And whether it was Panti or Rory, she/he ran as far as possible from Ireland’s small, aloof, religious and homophobic society, landing in the freedom of Tokyo. Panti can, and did, have fun.
The girl with the ball, in every sense of the word
Now, Panti, who took down the gauntlet against the still-existent homophobia just a few years ago with a speech from the Monastery stage, reveled in the role of national treasure.
She uses it to unify her identity. If these wigs could talk Panti obviously, but the voice is Rory’s, about life as a gay man in a society where now (a lot of times) minorities can step out of the shadows and at least claim their rights. them as people and citizens.
The humorous stories the show is sprinkled with are Rory’s experiences, brought on by Panti – including carrying a giant dildo through security at a Harry Potter preview in London, surrounded by group of teenagers screaming and treating a stranger as a life partner in a different but equally glamorous setting at an ambassador event in Vienna.
And then the tune changes. Panti (by the way, the lighting needs to be adjusted as you can see where her padding starts and ends, which spoils the seduction illusion) shows Rory searching for souls during lockdown , couldn’t use her surrogate self to spread the word campaigning for that. Panti was now famous.
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The girl with the ball, in every sense of the word. And the battle is not over yet, she reminds us. “They” are still there, plotting to turn back the clock.
And Panti’s message is clear: “Tell them to go away.”
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Tara Flynn in ‘Haunted’. Ruth Medjber’s photo
Towards the end of Haunted, in summarizing a confessional memoir about her unrelenting trauma, Flynn commented that she was lucky to have someone (a husband) willing to “live with the husks”. It was a horrifying image.
And it follows an account of activity in the run-up to the referendum on repeal of the Eighth Amendment.
Flynn recounts becoming an important advocate for publicly recounting her own abortion experience.
She’s become the target of extreme hate, mostly expressed online, the evil she adheres to with troubled, obsessive dedication. And she resented, and still resented, being told she should turn off her phone. They are still there, she explained.
The story is intertwined with memories of her childhood when she was put in her place by a blunt-spoken father who claimed her voice sounded like a crow – and on Christmas Eve when she was nine years old. , claiming that he had shot and killed Santa Claus.
Flynn is expected to return to “normal” life following the referendum result, but cannot shake off the legacy of what happened during the campaign.
Flynn has a vision of the feminist struggle, right from the stories of the legendary Biddy Early, tried for witchcraft in Co Clare, her history passed down through a seanchaí (in crouched form) of a sheela-na-gig).
That, and discovering that she is more like her father’s daughter in her audacity than she ever realized, will help.
“The sun always comes out; but sometimes it’s not enough to warm your bones.” But she’s getting there, she hopes.
https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/theatre-arts/panti-bliss-and-tara-flynn-take-on-modern-ireland-42154489.html Panti Bliss and Tara Flynn take on modern Ireland