At What Cost? (Belvoir) ★★★★★

Written by Nathan Maynard. Belvoir St Theatre. 4 – 21 May, 2023.

While many people spent the night watching the Coronation of King Charles III, Australia’s new Head of State, a smaller group were sitting in the Belvoir St Theatre watching a play rooted in the intergenerational damage of British colonialism.

At What Cost? Nathan Maynard’s seering play about an Aboriginal community in Tasmania fighting over cultural & ethnic authenticity, returns to Belvoir before a national tour. I missed it when it debuted in 2022, but the cast has reassembled and it’s easy to see why it’s getting another run – this play is rich and exciting.

Boyd (an unmissable performance by Luke Carroll), is a leader in the palawa community preparing for a British museum to return the stolen remains of William “King Billy” Lanne, an Indigenous Tasmanian man. Preparing a cremation pyre on palawa land, not open to the general public, he and his partner Nala (Sandy Greenwood) notice a new tent has been set up on the outskirts. Boyd fears it is part of a political group of “box tickers”, people with no provable claim to Aboriginality but who take on the identity for themselves. When Boyd, and his younger cousin Daniel (Ari Maza Long) explore, they find Gracie (Alex Malone), a red headed woman who says she’s there to research her thesis.

Everything here is a double-edged sword. Boyd’s rage and hardline stance to protect his people is as destructive as it is righteous. Gracie’s own crushing desire to belong, to be special, might be born of white guilt but does it make her illegitimate? The script uses Nala and Daniel to draw out the nuances of the debate. Nala is more accepting because she’s lived through years of people trying to hide their Aboriginality, the links aren’t always clear anymore. Daniel is part of a younger generation with his eyes on the present, not the past.

Maynard’s script is so tight and jam-packed with big issues it fuels debate long after you’ve left the theatre. I spent a lot of time translating all this questioning of Aboriginal identity over to that of gender, sexuality and disability. How is the issue of self identification for trans people different from that of self identification for Indigenous people? Can heterosexual people claim queerness? Race, like disability, isn’t about the obvious physical markers. These aren’t like-for-like comparisons to race and ethnicity of course, but At What Cost? got my brain ticking in a way that not many plays do – it is a conversation starter.

Around these performances is Jacob Nash and Keerthi Subramanyam’s simple but gripping set. A collection of white branches border the stage and slowly become the funeral pyre, rising high into the sparkling night sky. Evocative music (Brendon Boney) and sound design (David Bergman) ratchet up the tension. Director Isaac Drandic skillfully paces the story out and when the revelations drop, the audience literally gasps. 

If you’re wanting a quibble, I’d say I would have loved one more scene at the end to decompress the final moment – but I also love the economy of the storytelling. All plays are fifteen minutes too long as a rule and the sharp ending sends you out into the foyer in need of a drink and a moment to process.

At What Cost? is thrilling theatre. It entertains and provokes in equal measure. We’re lucky it’s come back so soon, and that it is about to tour. Uniquely Australia and expertly done – this one should be seen around the world.