Little Black Bastard

Overview

First cab off the rank for Arts House’s 2014 season is Noel Tovey’s Little Black Bastard. This autobiographical, one-man show spans the course of Tovey’s life from a troubled childhood suffering the horrors of institutional neglect to a stint in Pentridge Gaol at the age of just seventeen. After a moment of awakening in prison, Tovey sought reinvention in the UK as a performer, and has since enjoyed a stellar international career as a dancer and choreographer — Australia's first Aboriginal ballet dancer, in fact.

The self-professed goal of Arts House is to bring Melbourne the latest in avant-garde and experimental performance art. With Tovey now 83 years old, and with Little Black Bastard in its tenth year of performance, this show might not strike you as particularly experimental or ground-breaking, but it is a rare chance in a limited season to see one of Australia’s leading Indigenous theatre-makers in action. A performance, he claims, may well be his last.

Little Black Bastard is appearing as part of the Melbourne Indigenous Arts Festival.