THE WRONG GODS
3 MAY – 1 JUN 2025
Belvoir St Theatre
By S. Shakthidharan
Directed by Hannah Goodwin and S. Shakthidharan
In a valley in India, paintings on a cave wall bear testimony to the presence of people – and their gods – for fifty thousand years. Close by, Nirmala farms the soil as her ancestors did, but her daughter Isha wants something more – a city education, and the opportunity it promises. And there are outsiders in the valley now, bringing new crops, new technologies, new visions of the future. There are new gods loose in the valley. But they are asking Nirmala and her people to pay a heavy price.
A gripping new play from S. Shakthidharan (Counting and Cracking, The Jungle and the Sea) co-directed by Hannah Goodwin (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Never Closer), The Wrong Gods melds mother-and-daughter struggle with the economics of progress, asking, what are we worshipping? And what price will we pay?
This is a fine play of ideas, for fine actors. Nadie Kammallaweera, Radhika Mudaliyar and the award-winning Vaishnavi Suryaprakash have all given unforgettable performances in Shakthi’s work in recent years. Counting and Cracking and The Jungle and the Sea were big plays. Here, with just four actors and ninety minutes, Shakthi’s writing is even bigger than ever, modelling in this small patch of India the impact of capitalism on the planet as a whole. What a writer. – Eamon Flack
