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Artwork for The Wrong Gods
Artwork for The Wrong Gods
Artwork for The Wrong Gods
Artwork for The Wrong Gods
Artwork for The Wrong Gods
The Wrong Gods

6 JUN  —  12 JUL 2025

Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio

Australian playwright S. Shakthidharan (Counting and Cracking) is one of the most exciting voices in theatre today. This bold new work conjures a tale of community, family and freedom in the face of impending globalisation.

1 hour and 30 minutes. No interval.

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This is rated 4 out of 5 stars

‘Deep engagement with big ideas that traverse the personal and the political.’

The Age
This is rated 4 out of 5 stars

‘An absorbing drama.’

The Guardian
This is rated 4 out of 5 stars

'Rich, evocative and unflinching.'

Time Out
This is rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

‘Deeply affecting.’

Suzy Goes See
This is rated 4 out of 5 stars

'Nuanced, thought-provoking, and proudly South Asian.'

State of the Art

ABOUT THE SHOW

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.

Following the overwhelming acclaim of his epic works Counting and Cracking and The Jungle and the Sea, Australian playwright S. Shakthidharan returns with an intimate, compelling story of a mother and daughter divided by their visions of the future.

Critics have praised the ‘absorbing drama’ (The Guardian) as ‘quietly moving and disarmingly powerful’ (The Sydney Morning Herald), a tale rich with hope, betrayal and the tension between tradition and modernity. 

If everything in this world comes at a cost, who gets to decide what that cost will be?

Co-producer
belvoir jjv3gw

Presented with
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Accessibility

  • Wheelchair Accessible

  • Hearing Assistance

  • Audio Described

  • Tactile Tour

  • Open Captioning

  • Closed Captioning

  • Auslan Interpreted

Performance Type Performance Date(s)
Audio Described
Vision Australia 		Saturday 28 June at 2pm
Tuesday 1 July at 6.30pm
Tactile Tour
at venue 		Saturday 28 June at 2pm (Tactile tour commences at 1pm)
Open Captioning
via screen 		Saturday 5 July at 2pm
Closed Captioning
via GoTheatrical App 		Saturday 5 July at 2pm
Auslan Interpreted Tuesday 8 July at 6.30pm

Artwork for Manali Datar

Manali Datar

Devi

Manali Datar (she/her) is a Marathi multidisciplinary artist. She lives and works on Wurundjeri and Gadigal land and acknowledges that sovereignty was never ceded. Her theatre credits include Vivid White (Melbourne Theatre Company); Fangirls (Belvoir); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts 1 and 2 (Michael Cassel Group); Death of a Salesman (GWB); White Pearl (Sydney Theatre Company); Flat Earthers the Musical (Griffin Theatre/Hayes Theatre Co); Emilia (Essential Theatre/Arts Centre Melbourne). Her work in television includes Gold Diggers for ABC and CBS Studios International. Also a musician and songwriter, Manali has released music both as a solo artist and as part of the duo ultrafine. Her debut single, 'temple', was also featured in Gold Diggers.

Artwork for Nadie Kammallaweera

Nadie Kammallaweera

Nirmala

Born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Nadie Kammallaweera is a theatre, film, and television actor, writer, and translator. Her credits include Counting and Cracking, Jungle and the Sea, and The Cherry Orchard (Belvoir); Kalumali (Stage Theatre Group Colombo); The House of Bernarda Alba, Blood Wedding, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Mother Courage and Her Children (Somalatha Subasinghe Playhouse, Colombo). Her television work includes Wakefield, Bump, The Young Pope, The New Pope, Bedde Kulawamiya, and Sansasre Piyasatahan. Her film credits include This Is My Moon, August Sun, Pangshu, Strange Familiar, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She has received multiple awards in Sri Lanka, including the Presidential Award for Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role, and the BUNKA Award for her contribution to Sri Lankan theatre. Nadie recently won a Green Room Award for Outstanding Performance in Counting and Cracking. She co-wrote the screenplay Thaala and is currently co-writing a new screenplay with Anura de Silva for Ashram Productions.

Artwork for Radhika Mudaliyar

Radhika Mudaliyar

Isha

Radhika Mudaliyar, a Sydney-based actor of Indian heritage, is a graduate of the renowned Bachelor of Arts in Acting program at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). She has recently appeared in Counting and Cracking (Belvoir) and Stan series Prosper and He Had it Coming. While at WAAPA, notable roles included Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cleante in Tartuffe, Aarzu in Caress/Ache and the titular role in Antigone. In 2023, she was awarded the Best Actor prize at the Buddha International Film Festival for her role in All is Well and was named a finalist in in the Equity Neighbours Internship. Radhika earned the Most Outstanding Actor award at the Vice Chancellor’s Shakespeare Awards for her original devised Bharathanatyam piece A Nayika named Hamlet.

Artwork for Vaishnavi Suryaprakash

Vaishnavi Suryaprakash

Lakshmi

Vaishnavi is an actor, dramaturg and dancer. Born in India and raised in south-west Sydney, she graduated from NIDA with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting in 2017. Her theatre credits include Nayika: A Dancing Girl, Counting and Cracking, Life of Galileo, Sami in Paradise (Belvoir); Grand Horizons, White Pearl, Julius Ceasar (Sydney Theatre Company); What the Ocean Said (Sydney Opera House); Moby Dick (Sport for Jove); Pramkicker (Vox Theatre); and Blue Christmas (New Ghosts Theatre). Her screen credits include Wakefield (ABC), Pieces of Her (Netflix), The Secrets She Keeps (Lingo Pictures) and Appetite (SBS). For her performance in Counting and Cracking, Vaishnavi received a Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role. She was a Literary Associate at Belvoir in 2022 and a Literary Assistant at Royal Court Theatre in London in 2023. Vaishnavi also holds an Arts/Law degree from the University of Sydney and received the Glorias Fellowship in 2022.

Artwork for S. Shakthidharan

S. Shakthidharan

Writer & Co-Director

Shakthi is a western Sydney storyteller with Sri Lankan heritage and Tamil ancestry. He’s a writer, director, producer and composer. His plays with Eamon Flack, Counting and Cracking and The Jungle and the Sea, have won critical, commercial and community acclaim. His multiple works in development include a play with Belvoir and a co-commission for Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company. Shakthi's memoir Gather Up Your World In One Long Breath comes out in September with Powerhouse Publishing. His debut play Counting and Cracking won the Victorian Premier’s Literature Prize and the NSW Premier’s Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting, as well as 7 Helpmann Awards, 3 Sydney Theatre Awards and 7 Green Room Awards. Shakthi is the director of Kurinji. He is also a Creative Australia and Sidney Myer Fellow, and a recipient of the Phillip Parson’s and Kirk Robson awards.

Artwork for Hannah Goodwin

Hannah Goodwin

Co-Director

Hannah Goodwin is a director who lives and works on Gadigal land. She is currently Resident Director at Belvoir. Her directorial work includes The Almighty Sometimes (Melbourne Theatre Company); Wayside Bride, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Belvoir); The Sorry Mum Project (National Theatre of Parramatta/Bondi Feast); A Girl in School Uniform (Walks into a Bar) (Kings Cross Theatre); The Carousel (Shopfront Arts Co-op/Downstairs Belvoir/Merrigong X/Kings Cross Theatre), and as assistant on Black Brass, Stop Girl, My Brilliant Career, Packer and Sons (Belvoir); Love (Darlinghurst Theatre Company). Hannah was the 2020-2022 Andrew Cameron Fellow at Belvoir and the 2019 recipient of the ATYP Rose Byrne Leadership Scholarship.

Artwork for Keerthi Subramanyam

Keerthi Subramanyam

Set & Costume Designer

Keerthi is a Sydney-based set and costume designer for live performance, theatre, art installation and film. Keerthi is a National Institute of Dramatic Art, BFA (Design for Performance) graduate and a member of the Australian Production Design Guild. She has designed set and costumes for Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner (Darlinghurst Theatre Company); Chewing Gum Dreams (Old Fitz); Chop Chef (Riverside Theatres) and designed the costumes and was a set realiser on At What Cost (Belvoir). Associate design credits include Grand Horizons (Sydney Theatre Company); Jungle and the Sea, Wayside Bride, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Boomkak Panto, Cursed! (Belvoir); Young Frankenstein (Hayes Theatre Co). Keerthi has also worked as a props supervisor on Into the Woods and Blessed Union (Belvoir). Her film credits include working as a design assistant on Operation Buffalo, as production and costume designer on various short films and music videos and most recently as an art director on SBS miniseries Appetite. Keerthi is one of Belvoir’s Artistic Associates.

Amelia Lever-Davidson.png

Amelia Lever-Davidson

Lighting Designer

Amelia Lever-Davidson is an award-winning lighting designer for theatre, live art, installation, dance and events. Her credits include The Almighty Sometimes, Meet Me at Dawn, Bloom, Bernhardt/Hamlet, Girls & Boys, SLAP. BANG. KISS., Admissions, Torch the Place, The Violent Outburst that Drew Me to You (Melbourne Theatre Company); Blessed Union, My Brilliant Career, Every Brilliant Thing (Belvoir); The Seagull, Julius Ceasar (Sydney Theatre Company); Macbeth, An Undoing, Hour of the Wolf, K-Box, Because the Night, Australian Realness, Trustees, Turbine (Malthouse Theatre); Next Move 11 (Chunky Move); Leviathan (Circa); Hydra, Moral Panic, Contest, Niche, Conviction, Dream Home (Darebin Arts Speakeasy); They Divided the Sky (Belvoir 25a); Looking Glass, Triumph (fortyfivedownstairs); Your Name Means Dream, Monument, A Simple Act of Kindness, Desert 6.29pm, Jurassica and Foxfinder (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre); Gilgamesh (Sydney Chamber Opera). Her awards include a Green Room Award for Best Visual Design for Diaspora, Best Lighting Design for Contest, Best Lighting Design for Looking Glass. She is an Australia Council Artstart and JUMP Mentorship recipient.

Artwork for Sabyasachi (Rahul) Bhattacharya

Sabyasachi (Rahul) Bhattacharya

Composer

Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, a classical musician and composer based in Melbourne, is an exponent of the 19-string sarod, a prominent North Indian classical instrument. Following the tradition of Indian classical music education, his formal training began at the age of five with vocal music. During his teenage years, he transitioned to the sarod, learning under the tutelage of legendary sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan in New Delhi. Since moving to Australia, Sabyasachi continues to refine his artistry under the mentorship of sitar maestro Ustad Shahid Parvez and Pandit Sugato Nag. With over 25 years of solo concert experience, he has performed in India, Australia, Mauritius, Singapore and the USA. He also wrote the first ever book on playing the sarod. Sabyasachi serves as the Artistic Director of the Melbourne Hindustani Classical Musical Society and is the President of the Federation of Indian Music and Dance.

Artwork for Steve Francis

Steve Francis

Sound Designer

Steve has worked extensively in theatre, dance and screen. His credits include The Children, The Weir, The Sublime (Melbourne Theatre Company); No Pay No Way, Appropriate, Still Point Turning, The Father, The Hanging, Disgraced, Battle of Waterloo, Switzerland, The Long Way Home, The Secret River, Machinal and Bloodland (Sydney Theatre Company); Cursed!, My Brilliant Career, Packer & Sons, Things I Know to be True, Winyanboga Yurringa, Every Brilliant Thing, The Sugar House, The Book of Everything, The Power of Yes, Ruben Guthrie, Baghdad Wedding, Capricornia (Belvoir); Hamlet, Henry V (Bell Shakespeare); Between Two Waves, This Year’s Ashes, Speaking in Tongues (Griffin). For dance, Steve has composed music for Wudjang, Sandsong, Dark Emu, Bennelong, Belong, True Stories, Skin, Walkabout, Bush (Bangarra Dance Theatre). His awards include Helpmann Awards for Best Original Score in 2012 and 2003, and Best New Australian Work in 20023 and Sydney Theatre Awards in 2011 and 2014.

Nigel Poulton

Nigel Poulton

Movement & Fight Director, Intimacy Coordinator

Nigel Poulton is an award-winning movement and fight director, intimacy coordinator/director, SAG-AFTRA stunt performer and actor with over 30 years of professional experience. He specialises in kinesthetic movement processes, choreography, interdisciplinary collaboration, weapons pedagogy, performance, teaching. He is a practitioner of Theatrical Biomechanics, a certified Intimacy Director and Coordinator with IDC, a Fight Master with the Society of American Fight Directors (one of only two awarded this outside the US); a Fight Director and past President of the Society of Australian Fight Directors Inc; and an Honorary Fight Director with Fight Directors Canada. Choreography credits include the Finnish National Ballet, Australian Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Metropolitan Opera, and leading Australian theatre companies such as Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company and Bell Shakespeare. Film and TV credits include Monarch, Boy Swallows Universe, Deadloch, Nautilus, Thor: Love and Thunder, Pirates of the Caribbean V, The Bourne Legacy, Boardwalk Empire, and The Sopranos.

Artwork for Laura Farrell

Laura Farrell

Vocal Coach

Laura Farrell (she/her) is a voice and dialect coach living and working on Gadigal land. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Voice from NIDA, a Post Graduate Diploma in Voice from the Victorian College of the Ats, and a Bachelor of Music Theatre from the Victorian College of the Arts. A current lecturer for NIDA’s BFA, Laura has also taught on multiple Sydney actor training programs including NIDA’s Diploma of Stage and Screen, and Diploma of Music theatre, Actors Pulse, Sydney Acting Studio, Actors Centre Australia and The University of Wollongong. Her theatre credits include Into the Woods, Blue, The Junge and the Sea, Tell Me I’m Here, Fangirls, Counting and Cracking (Belvoir); Pear Shaped (Rogue Projects); F*** It Bucket (LeftBank Productions); Reluctant Sea Shanty (UNHCR); Picnic at Hanging Rock, Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. (NIDA) Paper Stars (Salty Theatre).

Artwork for Madeleine Picard

Madeleine Picard

Associate Sound Designer

Madeleine is a sound designer and composer working on Gadigal land. Combing her backgrounds in technical theatre and music, she is interested in storytelling through sound and in being part of the creation of new Australian theatrical works. Select credits include Hot Tub, Shitty (Belvoir 25a); The Weekend (Belvoir); Scab (ATYP); All the Fraudulent Horse Girls (Old Fitz). She has worked as an associate sound designer and/or realiser for a number of productions including Song of First Desire (Belvoir); Ride the Cyclone, Zombie! The Musical (Hayes Theatre Co); Julia (Sydney Theatre Company). Her work on Shitty was nominated for a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Sound Design/Composition of an Independent Production. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Technical Theatre and Stage Management) from NIDA.

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