Craig Holmes captured the scene backstage as the cast prepared for their show, Dough Lucas Pokeys photographed 25 April 1990. Drag is surely the most flamboyant and fabulous of all forms of performance, and Australian drag might just be the world’s funniest and most fantastic. Drag shows have been a big part of LGBTIQ+ life in Australia for decades – used as a way to subvert and send up straight society, to reach giddy heights of self-expression and to simply have fun.

The Australian Performing Arts Collection recently jumped at the chance to acquire a series of photographs documenting one night at the legendary Pokeys drag show at the Prince of Wales Hotel in St Kilda, purchased with funds from the David Richards Gift.

In Melbourne between 1977 and 1992, the most outrageously fabulous costumes on any stage in the city could be seen at Pokeys. Established by Doug Lucas, who had worked for Sydney’s famous Les Girls cabaret in the 1970s, and Jan Hillier, an entrepreneur and stalwart of Melbourne’s lesbian scene, Pokeys was soon drawing crowds of up to 1000 people.

“It was only going to be a little Sunday night show but it grew and grew”, Lucas recalls. “We started without any sets or props, then started doing little simple sets”. As its popularity grew, those simple sets became increasingly elaborate, as did the costumes and staging. “We used to do a massive, massive show. They were the biggest drag shows Melbourne has seen.”

Pokeys was at its height when documentary photographer Craig Holmes visited in 1990. “I was always drawn to what happened backstage, behind the scenes,” he says. “I wanted to capture the off-stage drama that was hidden from the audience. The story that comes before the performance”.

Pokeys closed in 1992 but Holmes’ photographs record the show at its peak, a time Doug Lucas remembers fondly as “just fabulous… heady days”. This moment in Melbourne’s performing arts history now lives on through the Australian Performing Arts Collection.

Credit: Arts Centre Melbourne

I always had a passion for the performing artist. I had been shooting commissioned work for the Royal Queensland Theatre Company, Lyric Opera of Queensland, Queensland Ballet, Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Queensland Performing Arts Centre. I was always drawn to what happened backstage, behind the scenes, to capture the off-stage drama that was hidden from the audience. The story that comes before the performance.

Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne