Shortlisted for Sydney Theatre Company’s prestigious Patrick White Award in 2022, Limelight Theatre presents Meurants Lane at La Mama HQ from 21 May – 2 June 2024.
Set in Glenwood, NSW in the mid-2010’s, in the backyard of their family home. Three brothers come together after the death of their father. Hidden truths, repressed memories, drugs, alcohol, and anger, all rear their ugly heads in a collision course as the brothers struggle to say what they really mean.
This is a story about a Western Sydney family who are of the Armenian-Lebanese diaspora. Raised in 1990’s Australia, with the mentality of Civil War-era Lebanon, with the cultural pride of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
The concept of Meurants Lane first began to form with the exploration of cultural identity motivated by a visceral anger due to the attack on Artsakh and the Armenian people, which led to the annexation of Artsakh and the forced migration of nearly 150, 000 ethnic Armenians.
This exploration of thought was eventually dialled into two simple questions: what are the effects of generational trauma and how does it manifest? This play is an exploration of those questions.
Meurants Lane will be the directorial and playwriting debut of Armenian-Australian Christapor Yaacoubian, an award-winning actor who hails from Sydney, Australia. He has appeared in many short and feature films, most notably the 2021 thriller, Fragile Seeds.
Meurants Lane will be the second production of Limelight Department Theatre Company. This company was built by Hayden Hayes and Christapor Yaacoubian and is the culmination of over a decade’s worth of friendship and artistic contribution.
After years of telling the stories of others, and spurred by an industry stagnation, they co-founded Limelight Department Theatre Company as a way of producing original Australian works that otherwise wouldn’t have been told.
With that we offer you an invitation to our home on Meurants Lane – where the smell of shisha has left the room, and the table which was once overflowing with food is left empty and dry. The Arabic drums which were the baseline for all dance and cheer, falls flat and its silence is deafening. Welcome to the house, which was formerly our home!
Meurants Lane
La Mama HQ, 205 Faraday St, Carlton
Season: 21 May – 2 June 2024
Information and Bookings: www.lamama.com.au
Image: Olga Makarchukova