By Daniel Brace
“It’s Iva Rosebud. Like Ita Buttrose,” says Lachlan Bartlett, aka Iva Rosebud. ‘Tradie by day. Drag queen by night.’
Lachlan is a Yarraville-based landscape gardener who transforms into the glamorous and shapely Iva Rosebud on evenings and special occasions.
Iva is one of the stars of Club Kabarett, a show by the award winning Bernie Dieter about to open at the Meat Market in North Melbourne.
“G’day mate,” Lachlan yells to a neighbour who is busy tiling his roof. “He’s seen me as Lachlan and as Iva in full drag with a parade of wigs. And he loves it!”
Lachlan grew up in Newcastle just north of Sydney, in a family of four boys. He was the creative one, or the ‘black sheep’ as he describes it.
As an emerging artist, Lachlan was drawn to the political and subversive nature of drag as seen in the Melbourne drag scene, as well as a good dash of old Hollywood glamour.
“There’s something about an elegant figure in a cocktail dress with a moustache,” says Lachlan.
I tend to agree. And there is something powerful and beautiful about a person so comfortable with themselves they can exist in worlds we used to demarcate; like day from night, or the club from the garden. So what is a perfect day like for Lachlan/Iva?
“Oh. That’s a nice question. Sleeping in with my partner. A cup of tea and breakfast in bed. A stroll around Cruickshank Park where the Doggies play. A long lunch with friends. Time in the garden with my flowers. An afternoon change and Iva emerges, then off to Club Kabarett in the evening for some fun.”
Lachlan now calls Yarraville home and describes the suburb as diverse, inclusive and open hearted, and has settled with his partner and a big garden, which is full of flowers and greenery.
Lachlan’s partner, Jens Radda, is also a drag queen, by the drag name of Skank Sinatra. I found this name particularly funny, having once had a very drunken night with Bea Arthur, who knew Frank.. well. Watch out for the show they co-wrote and both star in, Mass Hysteria, coming to Melbourne Fringe this year.
A graduate of the Music Theatre course at The Victorian College of the Arts, Lachlan has recently starred in two Victorian Opera productions, BOOJUM! and more recently in the ensemble of The Pirates of the Penzance.
It takes great versatility to jump from opera, to musical theatre, to drag. But it’s also part of the allure of drag, as Lachlan explains.
“The thing I love about drag is that exploration of what is beauty? What is gender? Drag allows us to explore these questions using humour, elegance and sometimes even shock,” says Lachlan. “It’s the reason I love drag as much as I love my work in the garden.”
“Club Kabaret is a kind of garden with colour and variety, and one where everyone is invited to be whomever you want to be. It’s a safe space for having fun and taking risks of a kind,” adds Lachlan.
Billed as a ‘dizzying collection of the most exceptional artists in the world, from hair-hanging to fire-breathing, unique aerials to toe-curling contortionists,’ I know I’ll be there to soak up the atmosphere and cheer on our very own Iva Rosebud and her quest to shake up gender norms and bring her blooming bud out for all to see .
Tickets: Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett
clubkabarett.flicket.io
Dates: 17 April 2026 – 24 May 2026
Venue: Meat Market,
3 Blackwood Street North Melbourne, VIC 3051
