The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert at 30: more important, enjoyable and vital than ever

The lavender painted bus named “Priscilla” continues to pick up new fans while never going out of favour with its legion of original devotees, 30 years after its release.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was shot on location in and around Sydney, Broken Hill, Coober Pedy, Kings Canyon and Alice Springs over six weeks in 1993.

Directed by Stephan Elliott, the film screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the May 1994 Cannes Film Festival, winning critical and popular acclaim for its positive portrayal of LGBTQI+ characters.

Awards came, most notably for costume designers Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner who won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for their sparkly, sequin-filled costumes.

The film’s cultural brilliance lies in juxtaposing the extreme flamboyance of the costumes and props against the equally extreme rural natural desert landscape. The unexpected revelation for audiences was how perfectly these contrasting elements harmonised.

A smash hit

Less than 12 months since its release, the Film Finance Corporation (FFC) of Australia had the rare success of fully recouping its A$1.67 million investment.

Initially hesitant due to Elliott’s disappointing box office return on his debut feature, Frauds (1993), the FFC was convinced after the screenplay gained attention at Cannes. The film exceeded predictions, grossing more than $16 million in Australia.

The film was socially and critically embraced as an instant classic.

Ask cinema employees from this time and they will all share similar memories of lines of people outside the cinema doors eager to watch and rewatch (and rewatch again) the musical road movie about a pair of drag queens (Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce) and a transgender woman (Terence Stamp) as they set out from Sydney on a bus journey across the Australian outback.

The casting today seems like more of a sure bet than it did in 1994. Stamp was a British actor of legendary status, having gained critical accolades in the 1960s in films such as Billy Budd, The Collector and Far from the Madding Crowd. However Stamp was equally a regular tabloid subject for his high-profile romances with film star Julie Christie and supermodel Jean Shrimpton.

Would audiences be willing to go with the idea of this playboy as the trandsgender woman, Bernadette?

It is now impossible to consider any actor better able to deliver Terrance Stamps’s deadpan sardonic lines so perfectly: “Don’t ‘Darling’, me, Darling. Look at you. You’ve got a face like a cat’s arse.”

Pearce and Weaving also were a risk. Neither were box office marquee stars at the time. Pearce was known as a lovable Mike from the popular television soap opera, Neighbours. Weaving was a critically respected actor known more for his quirky small parts than as a star in his own right.

Both were perfect casting, launching them onto Hollywood careers. Pearce as Adam was a remarkable revelation.

The chemistry and connection between the three lead actors makes the film truly succeed.

Never do their performances seem showboating or forced. Each has their own arc, personality and journey. And when they climb Kings Canyon in full drag regalia at the film’s end there is something moving about what they have been able to accomplish together.

A film that begins to be a slight and joyful comedy about drag performers becomes a deeper essay on the importance of lived experience and friendship (or, dare I say, mateship).

More vital than ever

Drag has a long history in mainstream cinema with its own codes and references.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is crucially different by it not being about “straight” men masquerading as women to mask their actual identity. Instead, Elliot’s film rather positively celebrates these characters in drag as their true and authentic selves.

This film stood with others as a wave of Australian cinema in the 1990s unashamedly wanting to celebrate an Australia juxtaposing the blokey masculine stereotype.

Ocker characters (men and women) appear in this film, but ultimately they are publicly humiliated for their homophobia. Bernadette kneeing in the groin the vicious and vulgar Frank (Kenneth Radley) often receives a big cheer from cinema audiences: “Stop flexing your muscles, you big pile of budgie turd,” Bernadette scorns.

Perhaps the true star of the film were not the actors as much as the iconic 1976 Japanese model Hino Freighter Priscilla bus that became the set for several scenes in the film. Because the bus interior was such a small set, there was no room for the crew with many actually in shot, hiding under clothes and other props.

The bus, long thought to be lost, was rediscovered on a farm in New South Wales in 2019. The bus is currently being restored, with an aim to have it on display at the National Motor Museum in Birdwood, Adelaide Hills, in 2026. Perhaps it will be good timing for shooting the recently announced potential sequel.

30 years after its original release The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert seems more important, enjoyable and vital than ever. All aboard, Priscilla. Long may she run.

RMIT Capitol will be hosting a screening and introductory panel discussion on September 11 with the film’s costume designer Tim Chappel, executive producer Rebel Penfold-Russell, Melbourne Queer Film Festival program director Cerise Howard, historian Kristy Kokegei and Stephen Gaunson.