Meet the Makers: THISISPOPBABY
Published: Thursday 13 February 2025
Ahead of Panti Bliss' Auckland Pride season in The Civic's Wintergarden, we spoke with the creative team behind the show, Jenny Jennings and Phillip McMahon from THISISPOPBABY, to find out about what it takes to tour shows across the globe and what audiences can expect from 'If These Wigs Could Talk'.
Introduce yourselves and your arts practice.
Kia Ora! We are Jenny Jennings and Phillip McMahon, co-founders and co-artistic directors of THISISPOPBABY, one of Ireland’s leading theatre companies. We are theatre and festival makers and directors both inside and outside the company. Phillip is best known as an acclaimed playwright, and Jenny has programmed arts festivals around the world.
Phillip McMahon, Director
Tell us about your process of touring a show across the globe.
The first step is inviting presenters to see a show when it debuts. With ‘If These Wigs Could Talk’, London presenter Steve Lock from Soho Theatre came to see the show, which led to a fantastic three-week run in that legendary venue. From there, we built a North American tour with our amazing colleagues in Toronto, New York and Washington, and now an Antipodean adventure! We’ve visited Australia many times before with Panti, as well as with other shows, but this is our first time to Aotearoa New Zealand.
Jennifer Jennings, Director
What’s your favourite thing about what you do?
The favourite thing is also the hardest thing – which is that your life is your work. Every encounter that you have feeds into the work in some way. It’s an incredible way to live, but it’s definitely all-encompassing.
What's the best advice you've ever received?
Nothing is wasted.
What’s a show you’ve seen that’s left you feeling inspired?
David Hockney’s completely immersive 'Bigger and Closer not Smaller and Further Away' at Aviva Studios in Manchester is both an incredible insight into his artistic process and a testament to how thrilling cutting-edge contemporary art presentations can be. It’s an astonishing venue, and we’re absolutely honoured to be the first Irish company to present there in April with our large-scale multi-disciplinary work WAKE.
Tell us about your upcoming show: Panti Bliss in 'If These Wigs Could Talk'
In 2007, Phillip, riding high on the success of our very first show, approached a hero of ours Panti Bliss late in a bar one night and proposed that Panti – this iconic legend of Dublin’s club and queer scene - make a theatre show with us. To which she replied – Who the f*ck are you?
Well, 18 years, 7 solo shows, 1 ensemble show, multiple world tours, 1 streaming special currently on Virgin media, a national furore called “Pantigate” which led to Panti being the face of one historic referendum and a prominent voice in another, books, documentaries, podcast series, some more world tours and a couple of mid-life crises later…..and here we are. With, we believe, Panti’s finest theatre work to date.
What can audiences expect from If These Wigs Could Talk?
If These Wigs Could Talk is one part salacious comedy, one part ode to Panti’s father – a mayo mountain vet now suffering from dementia, and one part rallying cry against complacency in the face of the spread of fascism – a spread that devastatingly has not only reached progressive little new Ireland, but recently erupted there.
We believe this to be an essential piece of theatre in this moment. Quintessentially Irish, fundamentally universal, told with wit, panache and power by a self-described giant cartoon lady.
