John Waters’ This Filthy World

Editorial

John Waters, the man who made bad taste fashionable, is bringing his one-man show, This Filthy World, to Australia, and it promises to be hilarious, shocking and enlightening.

Waters’ best-known film is Hairspray (1988), starring a very young Ricki Lake, Deborah Harry, and of course Divine. It then became a Broadway musical, and was remade as a musical film in 2007 starring Zac Efron, Michelle Pfeiffer and John Travolta. But that mainstream success aside, Waters is notorious for his early schlocky and low-budget films, starring the larger-than-life drag queen Divine. Pink Flamingos (1972) became a cult hit on the indie film circuit, and featured the notorious dog-poo eating scene, among other equally gross and tasteless moments. There’s also Female Trouble (1974) and Polyester (1981), which screened in malodorous ‘Ororama’.

After the success of Hairspray, Waters had some further commercial success with Cry-Baby in 1990, starring a young Johnny Depp, and Serial Mom (1994) with Kathleen Turner as a murderously desperate housewife. He’s also written a number of books, and his next publication, Role Models, is due for release in 2010.

Waters will be discussing all of this – and more – during his show, and promises to be a fascinating, if not perverse, insight into one of America’s most infamous directors and pop culture heroes. He may not be to everyone’s taste, but if he’s your cup of tea, he will be someone you won’t want to miss. Tickets are on sale from 28 November.

Tim Hunter, Citysearch