Luke Carroll in At What Cost? at Belvoir St Theatre
A powerful drama by Tasmanian playwright Nathan Maynard asks what it means to belong after a history of dispossession.
A great political tragedy grows out of comic domestic beginnings in this slow-burning play by Nathan Maynard. It has some wicked dialogue, some terrific soliloquies by its tragic protagonist and, especially in the second half, scenes of raw emotion. Like all great tragedies, it builds towards pity and terror in its ending.
Above all, it has an absorbing cast of complex and conflicted characters. At its centre is Boyd Mansell, a Tasmanian Palawa elder who is outraged when a recent land title victory leads to a growing number of outsiders claiming Palawa identity. Boyd feels strongly that he belongs in his country, and the outsiders – a group calling themselves the Hidden Aborigines of Tasmania – do not. He is played with intensity and a growing passion and desperation by the wonderful Luke Carroll.
Boyd’s wife, Nala, is torn between her desire for a simple life on country and to support her husband in defending what they have. Sandy Greenwood is delightful as the heavily pregnant Nala, flirting playfully with her husband at first but later learning, better than Boyd, that politically charged situations require delicate handling.
There is also Gracie, who claims to be a student studying Tasmanian ancestry. Boyd believes she is white, but she claims to be Palawa.
She is played by Alex Malone, whose initial charm gradually arouses our suspicion as she becomes more steely. Daniel, played with a nice feverish energy by Ari Maza Long, is a young cousin of Boyd who is drawn back to country from his mainland urban life. He is seduced by Gracie and begins to question Boyd’s passionate rejection of the outsiders. Nala is drawn into this complex intertwining of personal yearnings and confusions. The production is directed by Isaac Drandic and it is very strong. The domestic scenes he does with mischievous humour, in a style reminiscent of Jack Davis, and as the action escalates he dials everything up theatrically.
Set designer Jacob Nash has created a striking open space, ringed by interlocking white branches that look like huge bleached bones. They are used thrillingly in the late part of the action. Chloe Ogilvie’s lighting is brilliant, especially her use of the floor and in the final scenes. There is a very good score by Brendan Boney.
This is a play about exile, the constant yearning to belong and the search for identity. Central to its family story and political tragedy is the imminent return to country of the bones of William Lanne – “King Billy”, who died on Flinders Island and whose bones were sent to London to be desecrated by British scientists.
Boyd presides over their return and is outraged that the HAT outsiders want in. “Where were they?” he asks in one of his soliloquies, before reciting a harrowing list of what he went through growing up and living his life.
The white claimant, Gracie, is given a brief moment which – after a performance of manipulative behaviour that had Indigenous people in the audience on opening night laughing scornfully – Malone plays as pathetically sincere. “Why can’t I belong somewhere special?” she whines. It is a moment of triumph for a Palawa family who know where they belong.
There are many complex political and cultural considerations raised by this production. What is it like to fight for land rights, to negotiate issues of identity, to know who belongs, in a land that colonisers deliberately tried to empty of its people, and eventually claimed they had? What does it mean to try to come back to such a place, culturally and spiritually?
I am in no position to comment on many of these questions but Maynard and Drandic have produced a very powerful human drama.
Tickets: $48-$91. Bookings: online. Duration: 1hr 45min, no interval. Until February 20.
This rising Australian artist learnt an entirely new skill for her latest exhibition
Nabilah Nordin made her name with her bold, playful sculptures. After relocating to Los Angeles, her newest – and most profound – body of work sees her move in a different direction.
Believe the anti-hype. Disney’s Snow White really is that bad
Drama? Story? Character? Nope. These are, it seems, decadent tools of the oppressor. The new Snow White movie is a new low — and a crisis point for Disney.