THE PAGEANT Comes to Adelaide Fringe Next Month

The Beryls present THE PAGEANT at Adelaide Fringe next month. Performances run 7th - 12th March 2023 at Migration Museum - The Chapel.

Backcomb that big hair, glue on the giant lashes and prepare to snatch that crown! Your hosts Victoria Beauvoir and Roger Seahorse are on a mission to bring children's beauty pageants to every Australian town and Adelaide - it's your turn.

The Pageant is "the beauty pageant to end all beauty pageants" and is a satirical, darkly funny comedy set at a children's beauty pageant that goes terribly wrong.

Presenting at Adelaide Fringe's newest and hottest comedy venue Migration Museum, comedians The Beryls - aka Laura Trenerry and Patrick Dwyer - present this narratively driven, immersive sketch show that casts the audience as contestants and pushy showbiz parents as they satirise the superficiality of beauty standards. Leave your name, age and gender identity at the door because The Pageant is a world unto itself.

Creators and performers Trenerry, from award-winning comedy trio The Travelling Sisters, and Dwyer, a mainstage theatre actor, have been working behind the scenes with Travelling Sister Ell Sachs as co-devisor and director Kimberley Twiner, from award winning, physically based queer comedy troupe PO PO MO CO and The Wholesome Hour to bring this twisted tale about beauty, devotion and fighting for your dreams to the stage. Fresh from Midsumma Festival, Melbourne Fringe and Woodford Folk Festival, this show is a festival favourite.

"I always feel most comfortable when I'm playing a skittish, desperate middle aged man. This show is a dream come true," quips Trenerry, who met Dwyer when they were both studying theatre at the University of Southern Queensland. Since then, Patrick has performed in mainstage theatre productions for Queensland Theatre Company, DeBase Theatre, Metro Arts and at Laboite Indie, plus was also a key Fire Event performer at Woodford Folk Festival. "I'm basically living out my unfulfilled fantasies of being a pageant queen," he says of his role as Victoria Beauvoir.

Trained in clowning in Paris at the prestigious Ecole Philippe Gaulier, as part of The Travelling Sisters Trenerry has been touring to critical acclaim and sold out houses since they formed in 2014. Hailed as "geniuses of sketch comedy" they have a galaxy of five and four star reviews which they routinely collect when performing nationally and internationally. At the 2017 Melbourne Fringe they won both Best Comedy and the New Zealand Fringe Tour Ready Award, and that same year were nominated for Best Newcomer at Melbourne International Comedy Festival. They were also finalists at Funny Women Awards UK in 2016, nominated for Outstanding Ensemble New Zealand Fringe 2018 and in 2019 were again nominated for Best Comedy at Melbourne Fringe.

Taking time-honoured character comedy and bending the form, The Pageant subverts Australian tropes set by the likes of Fast Forward and Kath &Kim by adding drag, camp and original songs and music to the mix. The Pageant has been described as "the beauty pageant to end all beauty pageants... a hugely entertaining evening of hilarity" (My Melbourne Arts). Do you have what it takes, Adelaide? Get your sash ready, whiten your teeth, grab your hula hoop and let's find out.

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