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Wanking All Over Australia

AUSTRALIA EMBRACES WANKING AS
THISISPOPBABY GO DOWN
FOR 9-WEEK TOUR

Written and Performed by Neil Watkins I Directed by Phillip McMahon I Designed by Ciarán O'Melia
With selected sounds from Oberman Knocks

Midsumma Festival Melbourne I Jan 17-29 I Theatre Works
FRINGE WORLD Festival Perth I Jan 31- Feb 11 I Metcalfe Theatre
Sydney Mardi Gras Festival I Feb 14-18 I Sydney Theatre
Adelaide Fringe Festival I Feb 22-March 18 I AC Arts

BUY TICKETS NOW!!!

After fabulously successful runs in Queer Notions, Cork Midsummer Festival, Absolut Fringe and Outburst, THISISPOPBABY, brings incendiary performer Neil Watkins on a nine-week, four-festival tour of Australia in early 2012 with the hit show, The Year of Magical Wanking.

Nominated for Best New Play and Best Performer at Absolut Fringe 2011, the Australian tour is supported by Culture Ireland and takes in Melbourne’s acclaimed Midsumma Festival, Perth’s inaugural FRINGE WORLD Festival, Sydney’s much-loved Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in the esteemed Sydney Theatre, finishing off with a full season at the world-renowned Adelaide Fringe.

According to Michael Rolik, CEO of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the show is a major highlight of this year’s season, from “one of the world’s most exciting and daring queer theatre companies”.

Róise Goan, from Absolut Fringe, elaborates: “This is both a contemporary Irish story that urgently needs to be told to the world, and a universal tale of loneliness and hope that will resonate deeply, from a performer renowned for shaking up the status quo and providing unforgettable nights out”.

Neil Watkins is a maverick, a force of nature, a 33-year old homosexual with a Jesus complex. On orders from Above, this is Neil’s story through the wilderness of queerness. Written in hypnotic verse, it is a searing, honest and devastatingly brave tale of internet porn addiction, Catholic guilt and the journey to happiness.

Directed by Phillip McMahon (Co-Director of THISISPOPBABY and Writer in Association, The Abbey Theatre 2009) and designed by Irish Times Theatre Award nominee Ciarán O'Melia, this bitterly funny and poignantly entertaining confessional explores what it is to remove the resistance in modern life and achieve the highest potential; to heal, to create and connect.

The Year of Magical Wanking is an original THISISPOPBABY commission, supported by Cork Midsummer Festival and Project Arts Centre. Full production in Absolut Fringe 2011 was made possible through pledges from over 100 people via Ireland’s crowdfunding initiative www.fundit.ie.

The Irish Times: “Truthful, heartfelt and immediately identifiable. Astonishingly brave.”

The Ticket: “THISISPOPBABY are redefining theatre for people left cold by traditional drama”

Irish Theatre Magazine: “Both caustic and considered, a seething personal autobiography which is transformed into a more capacious metaphor for disaffection and regeneration.”

The Sunday Tribune: “[THISISPOPBABY are] not so much cutting edge, as creators of a whole new edge in itself”

The Journal.ie: “Sometimes performances come along that break new ground and push into unchartered territory...this play needed to be staged”

BOOKING INFORMATION

Midsumma Festival
Tickets: $25 / $20
Booking: www.theatreworks.org.au

FRINGE WORLD Festival Perth
Tickets: $30
Booking: www.fringeworld.com.au

Sydney Mardi Gras (via Sydney Theatre)
Tickets: $29
Booking: www.sydneytheatre.org.auI (02) 925017777 I Pier 4, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay NSW 2000

Adelaide Fringe Festival
Tickets: $15-$25
Booking: www.adelaidefringe.com.au

The Year of Magical Wanking is an over-18s event and contains strong language and explicit content. There is no nudity, masturbation or simulated masturbation in the show.
Running time is approx 60 minutes.

MORE INFORMATION…

 Neil Watkins is one of Ireland's leading performance artists. Writing credits include: Love In A Time of Affluence, A Cure for Homosexuality, Dublin City Counselling, The Dark Room and The Year of Magical Wanking. He was the host of THISISPOPBABY’s performance art club WERK at both the Abbey Theatre and the Electric Picnic Music & Arts Festival. Neil was mentored by renowned UK performance artist David Hoyle and recently performed alongside Hoyle at his LIVES series in the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, London. Neil has a number of TV and film credits with both RTÉ and BBC. He won the title of Alternative Miss Ireland 2005 as drag persona Heidi Konnt.

THISISPOPBABY is an award winning Irish theatre and events production company that rips up the space between popular culture, counter culture, queer culture and high art – providing an electrifying access point to the arts. Created by Phillip McMahon and Jennifer Jennings just under five years ago, the company has produced 10 original shows; a hugely successful alternative stage at The Electric Picnic Music and Arts Festival (Europe’s Best Outdoor Festival); the late night performance art club WERK at the Abbey Theatre (Best Night Out 2010, The Sunday Times); and Ireland’s Queer Arts Festival, Queer Notions. An Abbey Theatre production of THISISPOPBABY’s electropop musical, Alice in Funderland, is scheduled to play on the Abbey Main Stage in Spring 2012.

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FOR MEDIA INFORMATION, PRESS TICKETS & IMAGES:

For THISISPOPBABY
Jennifer Jennings | T: 61 405 159469, 353 86 3940952 | E: jenny@thisispopbaby.com 

For Theatre Works (Melbourne and Adelaide)
Daniel Clarke I T: 61 401 377 933 I E: cp@theatreworks.org.au

For Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras

Katherine Sherrie I E: katherine.sherrie@mardigras.org.au I T: 61 2 9383 0921