Queer Places:
The Carlton Court House, 349 Drummond St, Carlton VIC 3053
Noel Christian Tovey AM (born 25 December 1934) is an Australian dancer, actor, mentor, director and choreographer. He was the artistic director for the indigenous welcoming ceremony at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
The Carlton Court House is an important feature of the civic core of Drummond
Street, and as a reminder of the nineteenth-century expansion of criminal
justice institutions. The courthouse has cultural significance as the home of
the La Mama Theatre since the mid-1990s. Its importance for LGBTIQ+ Victorians
intersects with all elements of the building’s history, as illustrated by the
life of Noel Tovey. In 2003, performer Noel Tovey AM stood on the stage at
Carlton’s La Mama Courthouse theatre and presented his autobiographical
monologue Little Black Bastard. The monologue was published as a memoir in
2004 with the same title, and recounted Tovey’s life from his birth in 1934 to
his return to Melbourne from overseas in 1990. Tovey grew up in poverty in
inner Melbourne after the Great Depression, and suffered abandonment and
abuse, but went on to remarkable achievement. He spent his youth in and out of
institutions and on the streets of Melbourne, later working in a bookshop and
mingling in bohemian circles. In 1951 he was imprisoned for homosexual
offences, which have since been expunged. Tovey moved overseas where he
pursued an extraordinary career as Australia’s first male ballet dancer of
Aboriginal heritage, an actor and a director. An integral part of Tovey’s
story, as told in the book and the play Little Black Bastard, is his
homosexuality. He vividly describes Melbourne in the 1950s from a gay
perspective, including coffee shops and beats, the youth subcultures of
‘bodgies’ and ‘widgies’, police and press harassment, female impersonators and
drag queens, ‘poofs’ and homosexuals. The play speaks powerfully of a history
that was little known at the time. There is a certain irony that in performing
Little Black Bastard at the Carlton Courthouse, Tovey was revisiting the very
place where he and his sister had been removed from their father’s custody
decades before. The building evokes these pivotal moments in Tovey’s life and
his remarkable triumph over adversity.
Born in Melbourne, the son of an Aboriginal/ New Zealand mother and father of Scottish-African descent, Tovey endured sexual abuse, neglect and poverty throughout his childhood and adolescence.
Noel married Barbara Hickling and they had a daughter Felicity in 1961
(deceased).
Despite this hardship he went on to become successful in the theatre in both Australia and London, including appearing in the world premiere of Oh! Calcutta!. He taught at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and co-founded the London Theatre for Children before returning to Australia in 1990.
He played the lead role in Skipping on Stars based on the life of indigenous tightwire walker Con Colleano, performed to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus.
In 2004, Hodder Headline Australia published his autobiography Little Black Bastard.
Tovey is openly gay and has spoken out for the rights of LGBT elders.[1] In June 2010 Tovey was recognised for his contribution to the LGBT community by becoming the 2010 recipient of the
Foundation For All of Us Lifetime Achievement Award. In January 2015, Tovey
was made a member of the Order of Australia.[2] Also in 2015, Tovey was
inducted to the Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll.[3]
My published books:
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