S.Shakthidharan’s ‘Wrong Gods’, set by a sacred river in rural India, is a heartfelt interrogation of ambition, beliefs and ultimately the challenging love between a mother and daughter. Ideas of old and new swarm, clash and break across the set, whose endless tree rings carvings act as a constant reminder of what we owe to the places and people that we come from, and where we are going.

In the opening scene, we meet a young girl whose big ambitions to go to school and become a scientist are in conflict with her mother Nirmala, a farmer and the head of her village, who demands that Isha stays to help her on the land now that her husband has abandoned them. Isha’s brief time at school in the elusive ‘city’, which is referred to through her longing looks cast offstage, has sparked the fire of curiosity and ambition and lead her to question the lifestyle and beliefs of her mother. This conflict is exacerbated by the appearance of a mysterious stranger. ‘Lakshmi’, appropriately named after the god of prosperity and abundance, who appears in a with a trustworthy smile and a packet of seeds promising to solve all their problems. The seeds will allow Nirmala to grow more crops and thus Isha can return to school, with her education fully funded by Lakshmi herself.

The play then jumps ahead to 7 years later, where Nirmala has formed an unlikely alliance with ‘stupid Ms Devi’ to protest the building of dams that will destroy the environmental balance of the village. In a heartbreaking moment, it is revealed that Isha now works for the company building the dams and she returns to the stage beside Lakshmi dressed in restrictive, grey business suits that sharply contrast the bright pink and florals in which she was previously dressed.

This careful set-up of distinctive, opposing characters within this sacred space, beside the river and overlooked by the Gods creates a sense of momentum that builds to a climactic standoff between Nirmala and Ms Devi, and Isha and Lakshmi. As the devastating truth behind Lakshmi and the dam companies’ true intentions are revealed, the weight of this confrontation is imbued with a sense of cosmic significance as the fate of thousands lies in these few characters' hands. Yet the actors' performances succeeded in holding a delicate balance between articulating lengthy and nuanced examinations of capitalism, environmentalism, religion, education and colonisation, whilst still maintaining the grounded essence of each character and the relationships between each other. Nirmala, played by Nadie Kammallaweera was most definitely a standout performance, intertwining deep wisdom and humour through her beautifully poetic monologues and embodying the grief of a mother losing both her daughter and way of life to a rapidly changing world.

Additionally Hannah Goodwin and S. Shakthidharan’s careful construction of distance between the characters, specifically the mother and daughter, was incredibly powerful in building up tension. Despite the intensity of the verbal confrontations, there were still unanimous gasps of shock from the audience when Nirmala and Isha finally came into physical contact, whether aggressively pushing each other or finally collapsing into an embrace.

‘Wrong Gods’ is both heart-breaking and thought-provoking. The evocative language and passionate performances leaves the audience in deep consideration of the sacrifices we make for ‘progress’, creating space for nuanced perspectives and dynamics to play out and capturing the complexities of tradition and ambition in the modern, rapidly changing world.

The Wrong Gods is Playing at the Belvoir Upstairs Theatre until the 31st of May