PENNY ARCADE: Longing Lasts Longer

Driven by her magnetic rock n’ roll energy Penny Arcade’s acclaimed razor sharp satire is mixed live to a euphoric music soundscape inspired by four decades of pop culture. A blow against the golden age of stupidity, Longing Lasts Longer turns contemporary stand up on its head to create a crack in the post-gentrified landscape where audiences can think, laugh and dance at the same time!

Since first climbing out of her bedroom window at age 14 to join a fabulously disenfranchised world of queers, junkies, whores, stars, deviants and geniuses, Penny Arcade (aka Susana Ventura) has become one of the most influential performers in the world. Recruited by Andy Warhol to be a Factory Superstar while still a teenager, Arcade then spent over a decade engaged in globe hopping, performance art and international intrigue before returning to NYC.

 
In 1990, Penny Arcade created her most famous work, her sex and censorship show at PS122 New York, BITCH!DYKE!FAGHAG!WHORE! which is a blend of political humanism, freedom of expression and erotic dancing. After an unprecedented year long run off-Broadway, BITCH!DYKE!FAGHAG!WHORE! toured the world twice including a season of sold out shows at Sydney’s Belvoir Street Theatre in 1994.

In 2012, BITCH!DYKE!FAGHAG!WHORE! was revived in London for it’s 20th anniversary where Penny achieved a record 48 consecutive standing ovations.  She has created many shows at PS122 including Bad Reputation, Sunday Afternoon Tea with Penny Arcade and Quentin Crisp and New York Values, and from 1999 to 2005, with her then husband Chris Rael of indie-pop group Church of Betty, paired texts and music to create Rebellion Cabaret which was presented in Sydney in 2005.

A contemporary of Patti Smith and Debbie Harry, the late great Quentin Crisp named Arcade as his soul mate and the woman he most identified with. She is one of a handful of artists who created and continue to define performance art.

On the themes of the show, Penny said: "You need to be able to see the alternative in order to live the alternative… And what's being done now in all of the cities – all over the world – is removing the alternative, removing the bohemian, taking the rock and roll, the funk, the poetry right out of it. 

“I no longer think one person can change the world, but you can certainly change the world around you. So show up!”

Street One - Reserved | Duration: 75 minutes, no interval.