What will it take for us to challenge what we worship? What matters most?
Over a decade ago, S. Shakthidharan made a commitment, deep in the heart of India, to tell the story of how local communities were forced to do just that, as new “city gods” trampled in and challenged everything they believed in.
After a run of critically acclaimed plays including Counting and Cracking and The Jungle and The Sea, S. Shakthidharan returns to Belvoir St Theatre to honour his commitment with his latest play, The Wrong Gods, which he also co-directs with Hannah Goodwin.
Keerthi Subramanyam’s simple but elegant set transports us to a valley in India, on the bank of a sacred river. It features the most important element at its very centre: the precious soil that Nirmala (Nadie Kammallaweera) has been farming her whole life.
She has been honouring traditions that have run in her community for thousands of years. It is much more than farming. It is perfect harmony with nature, speaking the same language as the rivers. It is knowing what and where to take it from, and when to give the earth a chance to recover.
Nirmala cannot do this alone and she needs her daughter, Isha (Radhika Mudaliyar), to help her. What could be more important than for Isha to get to know what her mother has learned through this life of labour? This has to be everything. But Isha thinks otherwise.
Thanks to an early scholarship, she’s had a taste of learning about the world beyond the valley, and she wants to know everything. The more Nirmala pressures Isha to focus on what truly matters – the “right gods” – the more Isha wants to run away.
Shakthidharan and Goodwin have assembled a superb cast to bring this vivid showdown of ideals to life. As the mother/daughter pair, Kammallaweera and Mudaliyar are instantly convincing. Both display a genuine fire. What could so easily verge on a caricature instead comes across as a passionate plea that grabs us only moments into the play.
Rather than an unbalanced good-against-evil set-up, Shakthidharan’s characters are complex and layered. From the beginning, it is difficult to pick a side. Kammallaweera’s impeccable comedic timing is particularly effective in pulling us from the heat of the argument, building up our emotional attachment to the piece. Her impressive range is what floors us as we near the play’s conclusion.
The pair are joined by Lakshmi (Vaishnavi Suryaprakash) who has come to negotiate a deal with the community. Her promises are too good to resist. A future for Isha that doesn’t require her to marry someone she has no interest in. Better yet, the best of both worlds: Isha could be free to pursue her dream of becoming a scientist and do so without impacting Nirmala’s ability to continue to grow crops. Lakshmi comes with new seeds, easier to grow, more resilient. She comes with even more: money. Nirmala could buy a tractor and do it all on her own. So many new possibilities.
As Lakshmi, Suryaprakash’s portrayal is grounded and nuanced. Is she a two-faced missionary sent by the greedy corporation she works for? Or does she genuinely care about Isha’s future?
Years pass – very ingeniously thanks to Amelia Lever-Davidson’s effective lighting. Our four characters are now all surrounding the precious land whose future is increasingly uncertain. Nirmala has formed an unexpected alliance with Devi (Manali Datar), the very teacher who opened Pandora’s box by giving Isha her first taste of learning. They face off with Laskhmi and Isha.
Subramanyam’s costume design is simple but effective: it’s corporate suits versus traditional wear. The valley is in danger with dams interrupting the sacred river’s flow, bringing difficult to contain consequences. The stage is set for the ultimate showdown between the two pairs.
As each side takes turns to expose their demands and argue a path forward, Shakthidharan’s words hit with full power. There is simplicity but passion in each character’s language. The dialogue is so beautifully crafted that we barely notice how quickly we travel up on the intensity scale.
In just over 90 minutes, The Wrong Gods delivers a virtuosic reminder that life’s hardest questions are sometimes best explored in the simplest of ways. As we return to an empty stage after a gripping climax, we ask ourselves: when will we finally allow another set of gods to enter and challenge, at last, what really truly matters?
A powerful, emotional experience, and, at a time when we seem more determined than ever to play gods ourselves, one which could not be more timely. The Wrong Gods is more than a not-to-be-missed new play. It is a desperate cry for us to correct a damning trajectory before greed and consumerism destroy life as we know it once and for all.
The Wrong Gods is co-produced by Belvoir St Theatre and Melbourne Theatre Company. It runs to 31 May at the Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Tickets: https://my.belvoir.com.au/overview/13835
Website: https://belvoir.com.au/productions/the-wrong-gods/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/belvoirst/
Photo credits: Brett Boardman
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