The Production: The Wrong Gods by S. Shakthidharan
The Company: Melbourne Theatre Company
The Theatre: The Fairfax Studio at the Arts Centre
Until: 12 July
Stars: 3.75
There's always a bit of a risk in seeing a play on its opening night. It wasn't meant to be that way, but work and travel had us moving our tickets to opening night, and you know, as a professional company, you're going to get a reasonable performance, even if the cast haven't hit their stride.
Adding to this when the writer/director and the co-director come out on stage to let the audience know that one of the cast members had been really sick and they would be miked up and wearing a mask, you think maybe you got the wrong night.
There was no need to worry.
The MTC website explains it as such:
"Deep in a remote Indian valley lives Nirmala, a steadfast traditionalist, and her daughter Isha, who dreams of leaving the village to study and become a scientist. When a stranger arrives promising progress and an offer too good to be true, the choices they make will shape the fate of their family – and thousands of others."
And that's pretty much the crux of it. The minimalist set provides a great backdrop for the action, which is quite wordy. The tension between traditional mother, Nirmala (Nadee Kammallaweera) and her daughter Isha (Radika Mudaliyar) is authentically tense and rang very true (particularly if you've been privy to friends and colleagues from the sub-continent and their family intrigues. Vaishnavi Suryaprakash underplays the menacing Lakshmi to great effect, and Manali Datar's Devi rounds out the cast as a concerned teacher and community leader.
Something that took a little getting used to was all of the actors speaking in an Indian accent. This didn't detract from play, but it took a few minutes to get acquainted with the casts' speaking patterns.
And S.Shakthidharan's script is tight and filled with great insights about our changing world, tradition versus progress, and the ties of family over the needs of self-actualisation.
I know this review is not going to make that much sense. I did enjoy this play, but it didn't have the clout of the superlative The Black Woman of Gippsland. I think attending on opening night with one of the actors being a little sub-par possibly lessened the experience, but I give kudos to the writer who gave us, the audience, the heads up. Maybe in a few weeks it would be even better. As tonight was the first night, it gelled well. I'd like to see where they're at the end of the run.
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