John Waters: This Filthy World

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The brilliantly entertaining filmmaker, writer and shock auteur supremo, John Waters is coming to Australia in October to perform his deviously funny one man show This Filthy World, in his first ever national tour.

Described as a vaudeville act, This Filthy World celebrates the film career and obsessive tastes of the man William Burroughs once called “The Pope of Trash”. Focusing on Waters’ early artistic influences, his fascination with true crime, exploitation films, fashion lunacy, and the extremes of the contemporary art world, this joyously devious monologue elevates all that is trashy in life into a call to arms to filth followers everywhere. 

This Filthy World will also draw on material from Waters’ most recent book, Role Models, described as “a study in lunatic admiration, a tribute to self-acceptance and tolerance and a joyful and witty celebration of life,” (Sun Herald). John waters will be signing books after the show.

Since his teenage years, John Waters has used Baltimore, which he fondly dubbed the "Hairdo Capitol of the World," as the setting for all his films, forging an unwavering path in his quest to give bad taste a good name. In 1967, he made his first 16-mm film, Eat Your Makeup, the story of a deranged governess and her lover who kidnap fashion models and force them to model themselves to death. Mondo Trasho, Waters' first feature length film, was completed in 1969 despite production grinding to a halt when the director and two actors were arrested for "participating in a misdemeanour, to wit: indecent exposure."

In 1972 Waters created what would become the most notorious film in American independent cinema of the 1970's, Pink Flamingos. Centred on the battle to secure the title "Filthiest People Alive," Pink Flamingos turned Waters into a cult celebrity and went on to become a smash success.

In 1981, Waters made Polyester, a wide-screen comic melodrama filmed in glorious "Odorama," with ticket buyers given scratch 'n' sniff cards to smell along with the characters in their fragrant search for romantic happiness.

In Hairspray (1988), Waters created "an almost big-budget comedy extravaganza about star-struck teenage celebrities in 1962, their stage mothers and their quest for mental health." The film was a box office and critical success, later turned into a Broadway production, with a remake of the film released in 2007 starring John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer and Christopher Walken. Later hit films include Cry-Baby with Johnny Depp and Serial Mom with Kathleen Turner.

Pink Flamingos, the ultimate trash masterpiece, was again in theatres for a 25th Anniversary re-release in 1997, complete with new footage. Commenting on the long-lasting popularity of the film, Waters proudly boasts, "it's hard to offend three generations, but it looks like I've succeeded."

This Filthy World is an essential experience for anyone interested in how not to make a movie, how to become famous (read infamous) and how to shock and make people laugh. It’s tacky in excelsius.

Recommended for ages 18+. Coarse language and adult themes.