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An Abbey Theatre and THISISPOPBABY co-production

If These Wigs Could Talk (Tour)

28 October 2023

Written and performed by Panti Bliss

Directed by Phillip McMahon

Booking Information

Venue: Black Box Theatre, Galway

As part of Galway Comedy Festival 2023

Date: 28 October 2023

Tickets are on-sale here.

Following a sold-out run on the Peacock stage in November 2022, Queen of Ireland Panti Bliss is hitting the road with her smash-hit comedy show If These Wigs Could Talk.

After sold-out runs at the Abbey Theatre, Vicar Street, and London’s Soho Theatre, the Queen of Ireland is coming to Galway as part of Galway Comedy Festival 2023!

Fresh from making history on RTE’s Dancing with the Stars, If These Wigs Could Talk meets notorious drag queen Panti at 54, after a lifetime of accidental activism, far-fetched shenanigans and making a full time show of herself, now taking a moment to question what her purpose and place in this changing world is.

Expect salacious stories, impassioned polemics, and some seriously funny soul searching as Panti takes us from rural Mayo to London’s glittering West End to the Irish Ambassador’s residence in Vienna, where along the way the answer to her existential question presents itself where she least expects it.

Panti invites you to learn from her ridiculous mistakes, laugh at her glittering failures, and share in her triumphs, in this big, beautiful and brilliant night out.

★★★★★ 'Hilariously vivid... mesmerising' The Sunday Times

★★★★ 'Probing and lyrical' The Irish Times

★★★★ 'Glittering and glorious' The Reviews Hub

'A first-rate raconteur' Irish Independent

Show trailer  

• Written & Performed by : Panti Bliss
• Directed by : Phillip McMahon
• Producer : Jennifer Jennings
• Producer : Laura Rigney
• Graphic Design : Niall Sweeney, Pony Ltd
• Publicity Image : Patricio Cassinoni
• Promotional Video : Olga Kuzmenko

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Panti bliss - if these wings could talk, archive listings.

416.975.8555

Panti Bliss: If These Wigs Could Talk June 6 - 9

June 6-9, 8pm // $45.

Canada-Ireland Foundation and Buddies present a THISISPOPBABY and Abbey Theatre co-production

Queen of Ireland Panti Bliss is bringing her smash hit show If These Wigs Could Talk to Buddies. Meet notorious drag queen Panti at 54, after a lifetime of accidental activism, far-fetched shenanigans and making a full time show of herself, now taking a moment to question what her purpose and place in this changing world is.

Expect salacious stories, impassioned polemics, and some seriously funny soul searching as Panti takes us from rural Mayo to London’s glittering West End, where along the way the answer to her existential question presents itself where she least expects it.

Panti invites you to learn from her ridiculous mistakes, laugh at her glittering failures, and share in her triumphs, in this big, beautiful and brilliant performance.

Panti Bliss // creator + performer Philly McMahon // director

photo by Patricio Cassinoni

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Panti Bliss: If These Wigs Could Talk

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PROUD VOICES: A Pride Cabaret Celebration

Queer Songbook Orchestra 10 Year Anniversary Show!

Kevin Morris: Bad Gay, Volume 2

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BE… a Celebration of 2SLGBTQI+ Rainbow Seniors

June 15 - offsite event.

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Tallulah’s Pride Party!

June 28 + 29.

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Irish Drag Queen Panti Bliss Makes History on Dancing With the Stars

Panti Bliss (aka Rory O'Neill) celebrates the legalization of same-sex marriage in Ireland in 2015

How the legendary drag performer became an "accidental activist" and continues to break bounderies in queer representation on mainstream TV.

While it’s true Ireland no longer has a monarchical system after declaring itself a republic and withdrawing from the British Commonwealth in 1949, today’s reigning “Queen of Ireland” is none other than Panti Bliss, the country’s most well-known drag performer.

Unlike Ireland’s neighboring British monarchy with their creation of heirs and spares to ensure succession, Panti wasn’t born into this role — she didn’t inherit it from anyone. Instead, the self-described “accidental activist” forged a new path to become a part of queer history.

“I didn’t set out to be an activist,” she admits in between her rigorous Dancing with the Stars Ireland rehearsals. “I’m a queer person living in a homophobic world, and sometimes that bothered me, and when things bother me, I want to change them, but I didn’t set out wanting to change the world, you know, like Gandhi or something! So that’s why I call myself an ‘accidental activist.’”

Born in Ireland six months before the Stonewall Riots took place, Rory O’Neill grew up in a small rural town in county Mayo, far from the world of drag and the birth of the queer rights movement in the United States. After a brief performance stint during college in Ireland in the late ’80s, O’Neill moved to Japan and became a hallmark on the Tokyo club scene, where his alter ego and drag name Panti Bliss came to life. Returning to Dublin in 1995, O’Neill, performing as Panti, pioneered and orchestrated some of the city’s most influential club nights, hosted Alternative Miss Ireland for 18 years, and performed worldwide. Since his return to Ireland, he has been open about being HIV-positive, continuously campaigns for its prevention, urges people to get tested, and worked hard to raise awareness of how it can be lived with.

In 2014, O’Neill sparked a nationwide uproar in Ireland after a television appearance where he called specific individuals and organizations homophobic. The ensuing scandal, an Irish stew, if you may, became known as “Pantigate” and ignited a divided Ireland — those standing behind Panti, and the homophobes who weren’t. Following the television appearance, Panti rose to true acclaim during a famous “noble call’ speech in Dublin’s Abbey Theatre — a must-watch oration about queer oppression available on Panti’s YouTube. The address for equality was recognized worldwide by notable figures such as RuPaul, Ellen DeGeneres, Graham Norton, Stephen Fry, Madonna, and many more posting on social media in support. Shortly thereafter, Panti became the fearless trailblazer in Ireland’s “Yes” campaign for marriage equality, and O’Neill’s life and work in the lead-up to the 2015 Irish referendum became the subject of the triumphant documentary The Queen of Ireland . In 2019, Rory married partner Anderson Cabrera at a ceremony in Dublin surrounded by family and friends.

Today, O’Neill is among the hopefuls competing in this year’s season of Ireland’s Dancing with the Stars and making history by doing so as Ireland’s first same-sex pairing. Partnered with the Ukrainian professional dancer Denys Samson, O’Neill performed in drag as Panti and closed out the show’s first week, performing a captivating cha-cha-cha to Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” that earned an impressive 23/30 points.

The self-titled “gender discombobulist” is cognizant that being on a family entertainment show and invited weekly into the viewer’s home is an opportunity to change perceptions. It might not be apparent to every viewer, but Panti’s ensembles, routines, and song selections are unambiguous; these decisions are meticulously selected and as carefully contoured as the makeup on her cheeks. The notion that little boys and girls in similar rural towns and villages that O’Neill grew up in, where he felt alone and desired to escape from, can now see someone like Panti perform each week on the TV is a driving factor for the star.

“I know sometimes we can over-blow these things, saying ‘It’s just an entertainment show on TV,’ but it is massively popular. When I was 15 years old, a queer boy struggling to deal with all of that…if I had seen a same-sex couple dancing together on the same level playing field — completely ordinarily, like all the other contestants, at 6:30 p.m. on a Sunday evening on a family entertainment show — it would have meant the world to me.”

While Ireland has changed so much in Panti’s lifetime, her mere existence and participation on the hit show have ruffled some feathers, revealing “if I go deep enough into my Twitter mentions, you’ll always find some crazies.” But without missing a beat, Panti joyfully proclaims that the reaction received from the general Irish public has been “overwhelmingly positive and lovely!”

Still, activism isn’t for the faint of heart, and while Ireland has transformed significantly over the years, like everywhere, “homophobia still exists here.” With her strenuous training schedule of about 6-8 hours each day, Panti should be applauded for the work being done. Not only is she getting her “pre-pandemic body back” and competing each week, she’s showing viewers at home how one can not only live with HIV, but that one can flourish with it, too — an issue that most people outside the queer community might not be as well-versed on. “Dancing on the telly every Sunday evening is part of that process of letting people know that it’s not this huge thing to be feared anymore.”

From initial meetings O’Neill had with the show’s producers, he revealed it was crucial that he’d get to dance out of drag and “at least one week as Rory because I think it’s important to have two fellas dancing in your parent’s living room.” This impactful statement was seen just last year on the U.S. version of the show. After 29 seasons and 336 contestants, season 30 finally featured a permanent same-sex couple each week, with Jojo Siwa and her professional dancing partner Jenna Johnson placing second.

While Panti was a favorite to win this season of Dancing with the Stars Ireland , sadly, she was recently voted off the series — yet the impact of her appearence on the the mainstream show will surely continue for years to come. But Panti says she has no regrets. “I’ve never been one for behaving, and if they wanted someone to behave on the show, they wouldn’t have asked me.”

Panti also has some exciting projects in the pipeline. Between making sporadic pop-ins at her two Dublin establishments, Pennylane Bar and Pantibar, she’s also set to start an international tour now that her time on DWTS has concluded (the opening date is in Dublin on May 14). Panti will be appearing in the upcoming Disney+ docu-special, Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming, with Dave Letterman , premiering this Friday on St. Patrick’s Day.

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Panti Bliss: If These Wigs Could Talk

A THISISPOPBABY and Abbey Theatre production

Jun 13, 2024 – Jun 23, 2024

[email protected] 888-616-0274

The JL Greene Theatre Irish Arts Center  726 11th Avenue New York, NY 10019

Written and Performed by Panti Bliss Directed by Phillip McMahon Produced by Jennifer Jennings and Laura Rigney Co-directors, THISISPOPBABY Jennifer Jennings and Phillip McMahon

After a lifetime of accidental activism, far-fetched shenanigans and making a full time show of herself, notorious drag queen Panti Bliss—the “Queen of Ireland”—is now taking a moment to question her purpose and place in this changing world. 

Expect salacious stories, impassioned polemics, and some seriously funny soul searching as Panti takes us from rural Mayo to London’s West End, where along the way the answer to her question presents itself where she least expects it. 

Presented with generous support from Culture Ireland.

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Irish Arts Center programs are supported, in part, by government, foundation, and corporate partners including Culture Ireland, the agency for the promotion of Irish arts worldwide; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the Mayor’s Office and the New York City Council; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; Howard Gilman Foundation; Tourism Ireland; the Jerome L. Greene Foundation; the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation; the Charina Endowment Fund; the Ireland Funds; the Shubert Foundation, Inc.; the Arnhold Foundation; the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; the Irish Institute of New York; the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, New York; Northern Ireland Bureau; Invest NI; CIE Tours International; the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Consulate of Ireland in New York; and thousands of generous donors like you.

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Panti Bliss review – forceful account of a remarkable life

Soho theatre, London The Irish drag queen and activist, AKA Rory O’Neill, feelingly recounts her journey in a country long hostile to difference

W hat am I for any more? That’s the question the “Queen of Ireland”, Panti Bliss, asks in this latest solo show, which contrasts the country she grew up in, where performing in drag was a radical act, to the queer-friendly nation of recent years. With all she fought for secured, and with cross-dressing now “defanged and Instagrammed” to within an inch of its sequined life, “Why the fuck,” asks Panti – AKA Rory O’Neill – “am I still in drag?”

There are moments in If These Wigs Could Talk when audiences may find themselves asking the same question. Few drag expectations are met here. There’s no music, no song – and if Panti is camp, it’s more solitary tent than a whole row. There’s comedy, at a stretch, in the form of a choice one-liner about LinkedIn and two anecdotes distinguished less by comical incident than storytelling flair. Panti makes them entertaining, but must work to do so, selling the one about a substitute boyfriend as more outrageous than it is and ramping up the embarrassment – in the one about smuggling a dildo through security – to off-brand levels.

Beyond comedy or cabaret, this is more Appearance With …, in which our host trades on the interest in her life she’s entitled to assume as a bona fide national treasure. Fair enough: it is a remarkable life and she gives forceful account of it. They bear repeating, these testimonies of a conformist – and very recent – Ireland, fearful of and hostile to difference. Panti’s decades-long journey, from rejecting to embracing her national identity, is brought feelingly to life – and with shades of grey where it would be easy to paint in black and white.

From the act whose Abbey theatre speech on marriage equality made her a gay rights figurehead in Ireland, the show’s closing moments take on the character of a rally, as Panti rails against the reactionary temper of our times – and rediscovers her raison d’etre. A recurring subplot, about her relationship with her dad, helps offset the self-mythologising, ensuring her story is not just that of an icon, compelling though that is, but of a human being.

• Soho theatre
• LGBTQ+ rights

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Rory O'Neill/Panti: The drag doyenne who’s the queen of the scene

She can hold an audience in the palm of her hand, or round up a crowd with a click of her well-manicured fingers – so how did rory o’neill go from being a small-town boy in co mayo to becoming panti, the grande dame of dublin’s gay scene.

Pandora Panti Bliss

Rehearsal spaces aren't very fabulous. Upstairs in a building on Marlborough Place in Dublin, next door to Barney's Amusements and a glance away from the Abbey in an area busy with daytime drug dealers, All Dolled Up Restitched is undergoing a read-through, with Jennifer Jennings and Phillip McMahon, of the company Thisispopbaby, at the helm. Rory O'Neill arrives, makes a cup of tea, brushes the crumbs of a croissant away, and sits at a table with a clutch of Abbey staff. He settles into one of the first lines of the script: "Let me start by asking you a question. What are you looking at? Or at least why are you looking at me?"

These are Pandora Panti Bliss's words. This is not just the alter ego of O'Neill, but a constantly overlapping identity that has become something of a spaghetti junction of drag, performance, personality and brand over 20 years. There is, of course, an aesthetic distinction between Panti and Rory. Panti is a towering presence of strategically padded glamour and over the top yet impeccable make-up. She is cutting, wry, a cross between a wayward head mistress and a tipsy Hollywood legend who has seen it all. O'Neill is a little more standoffish, calm, sweet and intelligent, handsome with a hint of Platoon -era Willem Dafoe. With both, the voice is utterly distinctive, a theatrical drawl with a frequency of its own.

For more than two decades, Panti has been a woman in progress, leaving a tumultuous wave of creativity in her wake: the Alternative Miss Ireland, the influential clubs GAG, Powderbubble and HAM, a drag queen who can run with the best of them internationally, countless shows, and eventually a HQ at Pantibar on Capel Street, a gay bar that shuns the commercialism of super- pubs.

When Panti or O'Neill talks, the gay scene listens. All Dolled Up Restitched is a flip book of a story that shouldn't seem universal yet feels utterly so: a small-town boy from Ballinrobe, Co Mayo rejects Catholicism, goes to art school, immerses himself in the burgeoning gay clubland of London, ends up in Tokyo, and then returns to Dublin to blaze another trail.

In Panti's dressing room at Pantibar on Capel Street in Dublin, elaborate frocks line the walls and O'Neill smokes in front of lightbulb-framed mirrors. His dog, Penny, plays on the floor. O'Neill thought he would end up as an illustrator or artist while doodling as a child: "It was very gay and camp, drawing Hollywood glamour-style, what might look like fashion illustrations, cartoonised women. Looking back now I think 'God, I was such a gay kid.'" But performing was not yet on the cards; instead he went to art college in Dún Laoghaire. Performance artist The summer before his final year of art school, O'Neill moved to London. There he met Leigh Bowery, the legendary performance artist who became a lightning rod for everyone from Alexander McQueen to David LaChapelle, his look ripped off a million times by club kids everywhere. O'Neill worked at a fish restaurant beside Drury Lane; he remembers spotting Princess Diana attending the premiere of Miss Saigon . When the restaurant was quiet, the manager, "this big flamer with long hair", spent hours reciting old movies, "the real classic gay stuff that younger gays don't care about anymore: Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, the absolute classics."

O’Neill hit the clubs after late-night stints in the restaurant. “I remember going into one club, Bang I think it was, and Boy George was hanging out chatting to the person at the cash desk, and he’s like ‘Oh look at you darling, you’re always coming in late.’ And I just thought ‘Oh my God. A: Boy George has recognised me as a person he’s seen before, and B: spoken to me briefly.’ I just thought it was all amazing. It was probably tacky as hell but I didn’t care.”

The combination of discovering clubs through Bowery, and spending hours with an old movie nut, led O’Neill to design a drag show as his final-year project. “The only drag queen around was Mr Pussy, and he worked off in the straight suburbs. The idea that you could make a living as a drag queen? It never crossed my mind. I just thought it was a bit of silliness on the side.” A performance at Sides nightclub in Dublin followed, but, while working in the newly opened Elephant and Castle in Temple Bar, he got itchy feet.

Obsessed with trains, he undertook an epic journey via Hungary, Russia and China before ending up in Japan. “At the time you could make money walking down the street in Japan. They had a big bubble economy, and they all wanted to learn English.” O’Neill ended up staying for five years. “My memory of it is chaotic and crazy. I was of that age, throwing myself into the club scene, doing the drag, eating loads of drugs. I was doing all of that stuff. It was chaotic but it was also really fun and brilliant ... I was a mess probably, but a good one.”

Japan also gave birth to the name Panti (O'Neill was initially "Leticia", after his pet sheep) when he formed a double act called CandiPanti with an American drag queen, Lurleen. They ended up on tour with Cyndi Lauper. "She was really good fun. My big memory was when she hurt her foot, Diana Ross (who was also performing in Tokyo at the time) came to Cyndi Lauper's show and after we were all sitting there and the door swung open and Diana Ross just goes 'RICE.'" O'Neill makes a dramatic hand gesture. By that, Ross meant "Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation."

In 1995, O’Neill returned to Ireland for a visit before planning to leave for Paris. The Dublin he left was now transformed and club culture was taking off. He started dressing up and going to clubs; The Kitchen, Pod: “Basically I would make a spectacle of myself, and after going a few times, I’d say ‘Right, pay me, and I’ll continue to come.’ That’s how I started making a living: going to clubs and being a nut, crawling over the bar and whatever. The funny thing is, people hadn’t really seen drag queens like that before. ”

The often outrageous club nights O'Neill collaborated on, many with designer Niall Sweeney, are a far cry from today's more sedate scene. "I sometimes look at some of the kids now, and you see them on Facebook going on about the great night they had and they think they've been clubbing," O'Neill says, "and I'm like 'That's not a nightclub, that's not what nightclubbing is about. You've been to a corporate bar.' I think all the creativity was sucked out of everything. But, since the end of the Tiger, that stuff is beginning to creep back, I think." Chastising the lazy The lack of creativity is also evident in the "baby drags" who mimic polished pop stars, a far cry from the brilliant weirdness that O'Neill and co's Alternative Miss Ireland unleashed until the final curtain fell last year. But there's more to Panti than frocks and frivolity. The combination of being the doyenne of the scene with a searing, political edge and being ferociously entertaining crosses boundaries for LGBT people of all sorts. A blog post O'Neill wrote chastising the laziness of people for not marching for their right to marry after he returned from a poorly attended protest in February 2009 was a turning point in the marriage equality movement, mobilising countless people. O'Neill plays it down, saying he feels guilty for being compared to "real" gay-rights campaigners: "That's all accidental, too. I'm just a bit gobby, and I have a platform of sorts to express my opinion, so I just do."

He reserves greater insight for his opinion on "younger gays" who he feels lack the reference points and sense of history to be creative, which is feeding into a wider apathy: "There have always been people who are completely apolitical, and I'm sure if you went back 40 years ago, you'd find queens who were only interested in Judy Garland and nothing else, but it does seem to me that the younger generation are so apolitical, they just have zero interest in anything outside of their sphere. And that depresses me. It's the same about creativity; you can't be creative unless you're saying something. And if you have no reference points and if you're not interested in stuff beyond the Lady Gaga video you just watched, you can't say anything because you've nothing to say. So I do find that disappointing. They're happier I guess. Maybe that's what happens when you get comfortable. I always hear myself and I just think 'Oh, I'm whinging, aren't I?'"

And now, to the Abbey, perhaps an unlikely destination for the Panti of past. "I don't feel that I've been mainstreamed, I feel that the mainstream has made a little room for me, if you get the distinction I'm trying to make." He flashes a mischievous smile. "I'm still going to be talking about butt sex." All Dolled Up Restitched is at the Peacock Theatre, Dublin until July 20th

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Panti Bliss

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

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London’s most vibrant producer of new theatre, comedy and cabaret.

On stage. on tour. online, panti bliss: if these wigs could talk.

Fresh from making history on RTE’s Dancing with the Stars, If These Wigs Could Talk meets notorious drag queen Panti at 54, after a lifetime of accidental activism, far-fetched shenanigans and making a full time show of herself, now taking a moment to question what her purpose and place in this changing world is.

Expect salacious stories, impassioned polemics, and some seriously funny soul searching as Panti takes us from rural Mayo to London’s glittering West End to the Irish Ambassador’s residence in Vienna, where along the way the answer to her existential question presents itself where she least expects it.

Following a record-breaking sold-out run at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Panti invites you to learn from her ridiculous mistakes, laugh at her glittering failures, and share in her triumphs, in this big, beautiful and brilliant night out.

Supported by Culture Ireland

Loved the show? Wanna see more?

This show has now passed, but we have a full festival programme of comedy, theatre and cabaret throughout the year. Check out what's on now to find more great shows coming up.

‘Hilariously vivid...mesmerising.’ Sunday Times

‘Glittering and glorious’ Reviews Hub

‘Probing and lyrical’ Irish Times

‘A first-rate raconteur’ Irish Independent

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Panti Bliss

Irish national treasure, performance legend, accidental activist, it's Auntie Panti. Charting brushes with infamy, near misses with fame, and more...

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Grace Jones

The Queen of Ireland invites audiences into her gender-discombobulating, stiletto-shaped world, exposing the stories behind the make-up.

**POSTPONED**

As part of the big burns supper, scotland’s winter fringe festival //, “courageous and hilariously honest…fabulously entertaining” – ed fest mag, “sharp, radical, perceptive, hilarious and full of fun” – joyce mcmillan, “complete bliss” -lyn gardner, the guardian.

Having toured the world to chock-a-block houses and critical acclaim, Panti Bliss went to Dumfries.

The Queen of Ireland, Pandora Panti Bliss, spoke gave a candid and coarse guided tour through the twisted back alleys of her mind. Hilarious and poignant, PANTI LIVE traced Panti’s journey from small-town boy kicking against traditions to towering plastique woman making history. Exposing the stories behind the make-up, Panti invited her audience to her gender-discombobulating, stiletto-shaped, lash-flapping world, to reveal the National F*cking Treasure she is today.

Part ferocious stand-up, part razor-sharp performance lecture, part fabulous drag explosion – PANTI LIVE featured The Queen’s trademark wit, oversized wigs which was packed with salacious sagas, where Panti promised to ‘say the un-sayable.’

Panti Bliss, CMAT and Breaking Trad to perform in US with Irish government funding

I rish stars including drag queen Panti Bliss and musician CMAT will tour the US with help from the Irish government this year . The announcement was made by Culture Ireland's Regular Grants Program.

The promotional program aims to put the Irish arts on the global stage and support creators. The most recent round of funding will benefit a total of 149 projects spread across 32 countries, including the US and Canada.

Among those awarded include legendary drag queen and activist Panti Bliss, rising singing sensation CMAT , and the award-winning music group Breaking Trad.

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The Irish traditional music group Dervish , who are no strangers to the US, will receive support for their current tour, which runs until March 30.

Singer-songwriter Niall McCabe will also benefit from the $900,000 pot, as will The Scratch, JigJam, Ryan Mack, Gerry O’Connor and Irish artists performing at the Music City Irish Fest in Nashville.

In addition, the government will support the presentation of Waiting for Godot by Irish production company Gare St Lazare at the Geffen Theatre in Los Angeles and help fund screenings of Irish films at festivals like the Chicago Irish Film Festival.

Ireland's Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin said: “It gives me great pleasure to announce this round of Culture Ireland funding.

"These projects will generate new opportunities and audiences for Irish artists and showcase the rich and diverse offering of Irish arts globally."

For the latest local news and features on Irish America, visit our homepage here .

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Coordinates of elektrostal in degrees and decimal minutes, utm coordinates of elektrostal, geographic coordinate systems.

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Elektrostal , Moscow Oblast, Russia