A WOMAN IN PROGRESS

Project Arts Centre, Space Upstairs, Dublin Sep 24-26 Oct 8-11 €25/€18

For anyone unfamiliar with the more fabulous reaches of Dublin’s gay scene, your first encounter with the phenomenal drag queen Panti is a little like suddenly discovering a new planet in the solar system: how did you not notice this before?

Immensely popular both as an entertainer and latterly as a gay rights activist, Panti Bliss has been working up to a major show with broad appeal for a while. In These Shoes, from 2007, explored some fascinating aspects of drag culture: the ritual dressing; the psychology of duality; the religion of lip-syncing. Panti’s Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival production gives the personal history of a boy from Mayo in the 1970s who constructed a new persona out of adhesive, padding, Max-Factor and acid wit.

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The Dead School Draíocht, Dublin