By Mikayla Van Loon
In what was a successful haul of awards at the Lyrebird’s this year, some of Lilydale Athenaeum Theatre Company’s best were recognised across comedy and drama.
With the 2020 production of The Full Monty taking home both Best Production (Comedy) and Best Set Design (Comedy), director Katie-Jane Amey said it proved everything worked in the show.
“I view the Best Production (Comedy) award as affirmation that the entire production, on balance, just worked – all the elements, all the moments, all the people,” she said.
“We felt really good about it when it was onstage, and it was really nice to be remembered from way back in February/March 2020.”
This was echoed by set designer Merinda Backway who said it was “incredible to think that after three years our show was still remembered.”
While always striving to give her best to every set design, Merinda said she gave a little extra to The Full Monty given the mechanical side to it.
“It was a difficult set to fit onto the Lilydale Athenaeum stage – a steelworks that also needed to transform into multiple other locations. A gantry, a functioning sprinkler system and a working crane,” she said.
“Our team really pulled together to achieve the design. I worked with the set builders for the first few weeks of the build focussing on getting the crane mechanism correct. It was only used in the first 14 pages of the play but was an integral part of the story and it was a fun project.”
Taking many goes to get it right, Merinda said once complete and working, the crane mechanism was a “truly an impressive feat of engineering.”
For Merinda, the personal feat of attending the Lyrebird Awards ceremony was something she was proud of too, since suffering from the effects of long Covid for a year now, which leaves her bedridden and exhausted but she wasn’t going to miss it.
Staging and directing two award-winning comedies, with 2022’s Cosi also being handed a number of awards, Katie-Jane said from reading the words and comedic prowess on the page she could start to visualise the plays.
“I could hear them as I read, in particular actors’ voices. Yet obviously there’s much work to be done in lifting the words off the page and making them live,” she said.
“The approach is essentially the same as a drama – knowing and honouring the text, collaborating to find tension and release, working on timing and rhythm options.
“Both these comedies also have more serious moments, which work in contrast to the comedy and help make the comedic moments even more enjoyable – so finding and exploring the serious side or heart of the narrative is vital.”
This was something Best Performer in a Lead Male Role (comedy) for Cosi, actor Mark Crowe said makes the play stand out.
“It’s a comedy with heart,” he said.
“It gave them plenty of laughs and plenty to think about at the same time. With the diversity that is portrayed in the characters, they can do more than what is normally expected of them.”
Katie-Jane said separating Lilydale’s take on Cosi was important because it is an Australian classic that is produced a lot.
“The play can potentially lead us to focus on exploring the concept of mental health in the 1970s, yet we chose to focus more on the notion of asylum and seeking refuge from an outside world which doesn’t understand or accept difference,” she said.
“We talked a lot about trying to portray these characters in all their humanity, and create a show of characters who were recognisable versions of all of us.”
As someone who started acting only five years ago, taking on his first role in The Full Monty, Mark said gaining an award came as quite the surprise.
Having seen the film Cosi, Mark said his character Roy was a “great role” from “an iconic Australian film” that really was the instigator of much of the mischief.
Putting Cosi’s success down to the direction and casting, Mark said however, the entire production was a huge effort by the theatre and awards congratulate everyone involved.
Coming together for a night of celebration, Merinda said it was wonderful to just see people from Lilydale Theatre Company, with the awards being an added bonus.
“It’s fantastic that Lilydale Athenaeum did so well at the Lyrebird’s. The past three years have been difficult for the theatre community with many shows cut short by lockdowns, interrupted by cast illness or just didn’t get a chance to open,” she said.
“It was so wonderful to celebrate all community theatre at the Birds.”
