The Wrong Gods (MTC and Belvoir Street Theatre), at Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne - 90 minutes, without interval

What is the price to be paid for progress? That is the conceit at the centre of the compelling drama with comedic undertones, The Wrong Gods.

Nirmala (Nadie Kammallaweera) is a hard-nosed traditional Indian farmer who does what many generations before her have done. It is back-breaking work. She lives in a clearing in a remote valley on the banks of a river.

With 50,000 years of history (ancestral knowledge) behind her, she prays to the gods to keep foreigners at bay.

With her husband having abandoned her, she has pulled her daughter Isha (Radhika Mudaliyar) out of school because she needs help.

Photos by Brett Boardman

Isha is none too happy about that and is keen to go back and forge a career in science, which her teacher Ms Devi (Manali Datar) encourages.

Isha also frequently locks horns with her mother.

In truth, Isha wants to leave old ways behind and learn more about the world as it is today.

When Lakshmi (Vaishnavi Suryaprakash), herself from a farming family, arrives, she is not what either Nirmala or Isha expected.

Lakshmi’s clients – developers – have a proposition that will greatly multiply Nirmala’s output of corn.

Importantly, it will also enable Isha to complete her education and go onto university.

Nirmala relents, only to see her worst fears realised.

Mind you, how these are revealed and by whom come as a complete surprise.

So too, the magnitude of the damage and the resultant dislocation, with widespread tentacles.

Writer and co-director (with Hannah Goodwin), S. Shakthidharan (Counting and Cracking) has tackled the issue of globalisation and made it personal and relatable.

He has us – the audience – riding every bump and seeing different sides of the argument as to what was and what could be.

 In The Wrong Gods, he poses important questions: Are we giving power to the wrong people? Are we putting faith in the wrong ideas … the wrong systems?

There is much to appreciate, savour, reflect upon and be alarmed by in what we see unfold.

The play has been superbly executed by the cast and crew.

Nadie Kammallaweera plays the pragmatic and fiery Nirmala with determination and grit, not taking a backward step.

Radhika Mudaliyar brings the passion, cheek and frustration of youth … of thinking they know better to the fore.

Vaishnavi Suryaprakash is measured and persuasive as the seeming voice of reason, Lakshmi, who can readily mount a cogent argument.

Manali Datar exudes decency and the best of intent as Devi.

Establishing a sense of place was always going to be critically important and the set and costume design by Keerthi Subramanyam stands out for all the right reasons.

The impactful set is imbued with a sense of history and tradition.

Sound and lighting serve to elevate the drama and spectacle in what is a highly accomplished and deeply disturbing piece of theatre.

Reflecting on the present day, I was left asking what are we doing to ourselves … what are we allowing to happen?

Is progress all that it was cracked up to be. Look around and form your own judgment, because once you give up what was, you can never revert.

The Wrong Gods is on at Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne, until 12th July, 2025.