Dame Edna Everage

Dame Edna Everage, often known simply as Dame Edna, is a character created and performed by Australian comedian Barry Humphries, known for her lilac-coloured ("wisteria hue") hair and cat eye glasses ("face furniture"); her favourite flower, the gladiolus ("gladdies"); and her boisterous greeting "Hello, Possums!" As Dame Edna, Humphries has written several books, including an autobiography, ''My Gorgeous Life''; appeared in several films; and hosted several television shows (on which Humphries has also appeared as himself and other alter-egos).

Humphries has regularly updated Edna. Starting as a drab Melbourne housewife satirising Australian suburbia, the character has adopted an increasingly outlandish wardrobe after performances in London in the 1960s, through which his she grew in stature and popularity.

Edna is known for her outlandish spectacles. Humphries has claimed that they were inspired by the glasses worn by Melbourne eccentric, beautician, radio broadcaster, actor and dancer Stephanie Deste, as were many other aspects of Dame Edna's personality.

Following film appearances and an elevation to damehood in the 1970s, the character evolved to "Housewife and Superstar", then "Megastar" and finally "Gigastar". Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Dame Edna became increasingly known in North America after multiple stage and television appearances.

Edna describes her chat-shows as "an intimate conversation between two friends, one of whom is a lot more interesting than the other". The character has been used to satirise the cult of celebrity, class snobbery, and prudishness and is often used by Humphries to poke fun at the political leaders and fashions of the times. Her exuberant persona and scathing commentary on society and celebrity, as well as her habit of treating celebrities like ordinary people (on her television shows) and ordinary people like celebrities (in her stage shows) have become signatures.

Although Humphries freely states that Edna is a character he plays, Edna refers to Humphries as her "entrepreneur" or manager. Humphries and his staff of assistants and writers only refer to Edna as "she" and "her", never mixing the character with Humphries.

In March 2012, Humphries announced that the character would be retired at the end of the current stage tour, but later in 2013 he decided to bring her back.

Character story

While Dame Edna is a fictitious character (whose life story has been entirely created by Barry Humphries), so complete is her identity as an individual that Macmillan published ''My Gorgeous Life'', Edna's "autobiography" (written by Humphries but credited to Edna herself), on its non-fiction list. Humphries has also written an "Unauthorised Biography" of his life as Edna's manager: ''Handling Edna'', published in 2010.

According to ''My Gorgeous Life'', and statements Edna has made over the years, she was born Edna May Beazley in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, with a sibling who would give birth to Barry McKenzie. Everage started her stage career in a sketch entitled "Olympic Hostess" in the revue ''Return Fare'' on 19 December 1955 as Mrs. Norm Everage, an "average Australian housewife" from Moonee Ponds, a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria. She spends her time visiting world leaders and jet-setting between her homes in Los Angeles, London, Sydney, Switzerland and Martha's Vineyard. She is a friend and confidante of Queen Elizabeth II and has advised prime ministers and presidents. Edna once took an on-air phone call from President Ronald Reagan to assure him that he was, indeed, still the president; and at stageshows she has claimed to be giving former Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, elocution lessons.

The character has three adult children, Bruce, Kenny, and Valmai. Her first daughter, Lois, when still an infant, went missing and was believed to have been abducted by a "rogue koala" during a family camp-out in the outback, à la Azaria Chamberlain. In ''Handling Edna, the Unauthorised Biography'', Humphries absolves the koala of any role in the affair and reveals the true fate of Lois, who in fact survived abduction to become a Catholic nun. Edna's surviving daughter, Valmai, has assisted Dame Edna on her most recent programmes for ITV1, including '' The Dame Edna Treatment'' and has assisted on her live tour shows. Edna takes great pride in her two sons: Bruce, who works as an engineer in South Melbourne and is married to Joylene from Ivanhoe, and her youngest, Kenneth (or Kenny), who is a fashion designer in London and designs all of her frocks. Dame Edna refers often to him and his partner, Clifford Smale, both of whom Edna believes are searching for "Miss Right", although she admits they are looking "in some very strange places". Kenny appeared in Sir Les Patterson's documentary ''Les Patterson and the Great Chinese Takeaway'' as a boutique owner in Hong Kong.

Dame Edna's mother is incarcerated in a "maximum-security twilight home for the permanently bewildered". Valmai and Kenny are the only family members (so far) who have appeared on stage or screen with their mother. Her husband, Sir Norman Everage, died in 1988 after many years in hospital with prostate problems and a "testicular murmur"; Edna founded the non-profit "Friends of the Prostate" in his honour. Dame Edna was not with Norm when he died. And due to his insistence that all his organs be donated, by the time she reached his bedside, Norm had been "globally recycled" and all that remained was "a dent in the pillow". As a result, Dame Edna almost believed that Norm's cremation was a "waste of money".

In recent years, Edna has demonstrated her social conscience and sensitivity, telling audiences of her intention to adopt an African child from "the country where Madonna shops for loved ones".

Dame Edna spent many years accompanied by her bridesmaid and constant companion Madge Allsop (played by Emily Perry), a New Zealander from Palmerston North who assisted Dame Edna with her appearances and television shows. (Perry died at the age of 100 in 2008 and now Dame Edna's daughter Valmai has replaced her on stage). Madge never spoke a public word (although she sang on Comic Relief), and while she was often the butt of Dame Edna's jokes, the two were devoted. In ''Handling Edna, the Unauthorised Biography'', Humphries gives Madge a voice and explains the sad loss of her own husband in New Zealand's boiling mud, whilst the couple were on their honeymoon.

On some of her shows (''The Dame Edna Experience'') Dame Edna was joined on stage by 'Chuck' (Charlton Heston) where he would be mildly humiliated and mistreated.

Dame Edna is praised for her insights into her homeland. When asked why Australians are so good at sport she commented: "Good food and diet; open air life; juicy steaks; sunshine — and the total absence of any kind of intellectual distraction".

Dame Edna launched a campaign to be appointed as a BBC newsreader in 2009 after the corporation announced it wished to seek a female newsreader over 50 years old.

Dame Edna has claimed to have various medical conditions, such as Asperger syndrome, bipolar disorder, gluten intolerance, restless legs and attention deficit disorder.

In 2016, after Humphries made comments that were criticised as transphobic, Dame Edna's official social media accounts made a post in which she distanced herself from the comments, stating that she had fired him years earlier but that he "refuses to accept dismissal" and opining that he "is losing the plot" and "deserves our pity not our disapproval". In the same message, she also claimed partial Aboriginal Australian and Jewish ancestry.

Honours

On 7 March 2007, Melbourne renamed a city street in her honour: Dame Edna Place, formerly Brown Alley off Little Collins Street, was officially opened by the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, John So. Dame Edna Place is opposite Royal Arcade and The Causeway, between the major roads, Elizabeth Street and Swanston Street; it was, until its renaming, a service alley for adjoining buildings. Dame Edna was not at the renaming ceremony but was represented by ten look-alike Dames. Everage Street in suburban Moonee Ponds has also been named in her honour.

In 1982, Dame Edna's alter-ego Barry Humphries was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for "services to the theatre" and on 16 June 2007 he was made a