At What
Cost?
- 7 Aug – 5 Sep 21 Upstairs Theatre
This is the 2021 archive page. Click here to view the 2023 production page of At What Cost?
Tasmania, now.
Boyd’s got enough on his plate between keeping a young family together and his responsibilities to land and people.
But something’s happening. Every year more and more folk are claiming to be Palawa too. Folk no-one’s heard of until now, who haven’t been ‘round before. Are they legit? Or are they ‘tick-a-box’? Who decides? And how?
If Boyd’s going to take everyone forward, they’re all going to have to go back, old mob or new, into the island’s knotty past. And they might not like what they find there.
This one will get everyone talking. It’s robust, clear-eyed and asks provocative questions. We’re pleased to introduce our 2019 Balnaves Fellow Nathan Maynard to Belvoir audiences. But I suspect we’ll be hearing a great deal more from him in years to come. – Eamon Flack

Nathan, is a Trawlwoolway, pakana man and writer & director from Lutruwita/Tasmania. Nathan’s first play, The Season, featured in the 2015 Yellamundie Festival, produced by Moogahlin Arts. In November 2016, Nathan finished a 15-week writer’s attachment with Blue Rocket animation, where he helped produce and direct a palawa kani (a Tasmanian Aboriginal language) episode of the award […]

Nathan, is a Trawlwoolway, pakana man and writer & director from Lutruwita/Tasmania.
Nathan’s first play, The Season, featured in the 2015 Yellamundie Festival, produced by Moogahlin Arts. In November 2016, Nathan finished a 15-week writer’s attachment with Blue Rocket animation, where he helped produce and direct a palawa kani (a Tasmanian Aboriginal language) episode of the award winning animation series Little J & Big Cuz. Nathan wrote an episode for the second series. In 2017 Nathan co-directed, Jonathan Saunders’s, animation series, Zero Point, which featured a cast including Mark Cole-Smith and Steven Oliver. Nathan collaborated with acclaimed Maori writer, Jamie Mc Caskill on a children’s play titled, Hide the Dog, which like The Season, received Major Festivals Initiative and to be produced by, Tasmania Performs. Nathan was co-creator, dramaturge and director of Naz Dickenson’s debut play, CRUMBS, that had a successful season at ART PLAY for the Melbourne’s 2021 YirramboiFestival. Nathan is currently a working on the feature film project Mosquito Jack as a co-writer, alongside established writers, Raimondo Cortese (Holiday, 2007) and Jonathan Auf Der Heide (Van Diemen’s land, 2009).
Nathan has recently been commissioned to write new plays for Melbourne Theatre Company and the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).
Nathan was selected for the 2017 & 19 PWA Aboriginal playwrights retreat at Bundanon, where he had the opportunity to learn from some of Australia’s leading first nations playwrights. He was also the recipient of the, Tasmanian Aboriginal Artist of the Year Award in 2006 and 2013 and the recipient of the 2018 Tasmania Aboriginal of the Year Award.
Nathan received the 2018 Errol (Tasmanian Theatre Awards) for best writing and the 2018 Green Room Award for, new writing for the Australian stage.
Nathan was selected by the, Australian Council Of The Arts, as the Australian delegate to attend the 2018 Dublin Theatre Festival as part of the Next Stage Program.

Isaac is a Noongar man from the southwest of Western Australia. He is a highly sought-after dramaturg, actor, playwright, and director who specialises in new work by First Nations playwrights. He has directed for some of Australia’s leading theatre and opera companies including Belvoir Street, Queensland Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company, LaBoite, ILBIJERRI and the Victorian […]

Isaac is a Noongar man from the southwest of Western Australia. He is a highly sought-after dramaturg, actor, playwright, and director who specialises in new work by First Nations playwrights.
He has directed for some of Australia’s leading theatre and opera companies including Belvoir Street, Queensland Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company, LaBoite, ILBIJERRI and the Victorian Opera. His shows have been seen at every major arts festival in Australia and toured internationally.
For Belvoir Isaac’s theatre credits include: At What Cost?, Coranderrk, (ILBJERRI Theatre Company/Belvoir St Theatre). Isaac’s other credits include As Director: The Visitors (Victoria Opera); From Campfire to Stage Light (JUTE Theatre); Hide the Dog, The Season (Performing Lines); From Darkness, Bigger and Blacker (La Boite Theatre); Blood on the Dance Floor (ILBIJERRI Theatre Company/Arts House); Into the Bloodstream (Archie Roach Foundation).
Positions: Head of First Nations Theatre (Current Position), Associate Artistic Director, Resident Dramaturg, Associate Artist, Queensland Theatre; Associate Director, ILBIJERRI Theatre Company; Resident Artist, Playwrighting Australia. Isaac is a Noongar man.
Awards: 2025 Matilda Awards – Best Direction and Best Mainstage Production 37; 2018 Green Room Awards – Best Direction and Best Mainstage Production The Season.

A descendant of the Wiradjuri and Ngunnawal peoples, Luke Carroll is a seasoned theatre, film and television performer. Previous shows for Belvoir include: At What Cost, The Cake Man, Capricornia, Conversations with the Dead and A Midsummer Night’s Dream . Previous credits include: Mother Courage and All Her Children; Black Diggers (QTC); Sunshine Super Girl (Performing Lines), Black Cockatoo (Ensemble Theatre); Black […]

A descendant of the Wiradjuri and Ngunnawal peoples, Luke Carroll is a seasoned theatre, film and television performer. Previous shows for Belvoir include: At What Cost, The Cake Man, Capricornia, Conversations with the Dead and A Midsummer Night’s Dream . Previous credits include: Mother Courage and All Her Children; Black Diggers (QTC); Sunshine Super Girl (Performing Lines), Black Cockatoo (Ensemble Theatre); Black is the New White, The Harp in the South, The Hanging, The Battle of Waterloo and Cherry Pickers (STC), The Season (Performing Tasmania and Melbourne Festival), Wind in the Willows (La Boite); Riverland (Adelaide Festival), Eora Crossing (Sydney Festival), Purple Dreams and My Girragundji for Bell Shakespeare.
Other credits include Strangerland, Needle, Stone Bros, Subdivision, The Tender Hook and Children of the Revolution.
Television includes Goolagong, Mystery Road: Origin, Maverix, Total Control, Preppers and Playschool (ABC) Upright (Foxtel), Scrublands – Silver (STAN) The Artful Dodger (Disney+).
Carroll is currently nominated for a 2026 AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for Mystery Road: Origin.

Sandy is a First Nations Actor, Writer, Producer and Cultural Consultant from the Dunghutti, Gumbaynggirr and Bundjalung tribes of New South Wales. She has a Bachelor of Theatre, (Honours) from the Queensland University of Technology and has trained at The Atlantic Acting School in New York City, and The Groundlings in Los Angeles. Sandy […]

Sandy is a First Nations Actor, Writer, Producer and Cultural Consultant from the Dunghutti, Gumbaynggirr and Bundjalung tribes of New South Wales. She has a Bachelor of Theatre, (Honours) from the Queensland University of Technology and has trained at The Atlantic Acting School in New York City, and The Groundlings in Los Angeles.
Sandy has performed in productions with a number of Australia’s leading theatre companies, including Light Shining in Buckinghamshire and Wayside Bride (Belvoir Theatre); Stolen and Taboo (Sydney Theatre Company); Taboo (Ilbijerri Theatre Company) and Dogged (Griffin Theatre Company). Sandy has also performed on the international stage at Seattle Children’s Theatre Company in Afternoon of the Elves.
In Australia, Sandy is perhaps best known for her critically-acclaimed one-woman show, Matriarch, which she wrote, produced and performed. She was recognised with a Green Room Award for Best Actor and nominated for Best Writing in Independent Theatre.
Sandy will next be seen in the upcoming series The Messenger for ABC and the upcoming feature film The Appleton Ladies Potato Race for Paramount+.

Alex’s theatre credits include Before the Meeting (Seymour Centre); The Caucasian Chalk Circle and The Lighthouse Girl (Black Swan State Theatre Company); Eurydice, Babes in The Woods and Threnody (The Old Fitz); Spring Awakening – The Musical (ATYP); A Little Piece of Ash, DNA and Youth and Destination (KXT) and Spectrum Now’s Orfeo Ed Euridice, directed by Shannon Murphy.Alex is about to appear in Kitty Green‘s feature film The Royal Hotel for See Saw films. […]

Alex’s theatre credits include Before the Meeting (Seymour Centre); The Caucasian Chalk Circle and The Lighthouse Girl (Black Swan State Theatre Company); Eurydice, Babes in The Woods and Threnody (The Old Fitz); Spring Awakening – The Musical (ATYP); A Little Piece of Ash, DNA and Youth and Destination (KXT) and Spectrum Now’s Orfeo Ed Euridice, directed by Shannon Murphy.
Alex is about to appear in Kitty Green‘s feature film The Royal Hotel for See Saw films. Her other film credits include Mercy Road, Transfusion, and Pulse and her television credits include the series Wanted, Colin from Accounts, Home & Away, RFDS, The Heights, Les Norton and A Place to Call Home.

Guy Simon is a proud Birripi, Worimi, Waddi Waddi and Walbunga man and is the 2024 Balnaves Fellowship recipient. His theatre credits include: Holding the Man (Belvoir), My Brilliant Career (Belvoir), Jasper Jones (Belvoir- Return Season & NSW Tour,) The Visitors (STC), Jacky (MTC), The Tempest (STC), White Yella Tree (Griffin Theatre Company), The Return […]

Guy Simon is a proud Birripi, Worimi, Waddi Waddi and Walbunga man and is the 2024 Balnaves Fellowship recipient. His theatre credits include: Holding the Man (Belvoir), My Brilliant Career (Belvoir), Jasper Jones (Belvoir- Return Season & NSW Tour,) The Visitors (STC), Jacky (MTC), The Tempest (STC), White Yella Tree (Griffin Theatre Company), The Return (Malthouse Theatre), Grand Horizons (STC),Playing Beatie Bow (STC), First Love is the Revolution (Griffin Theatre Company), Cloudstreet (Malthouse Theatre), The Harp in the South (STC), Strangers in Between (Cameron Lukey Presents), Bright World, (Theatre Works), Jasper Jones (MTC), Blaque Showgirls (Malthouse Theatre, The Battle of Waterloo (STC), The Myth Project: Twin (Arthur, A Theatre Company), Black Diggers (QLD Theatre Company), This Fella, My Memory (Mooghalin Performing Arts, Yellamundie (Mooghalin Performing Arts), Junction (Bakehouse Theatre),Stolen (STC), Lucky (IPAN Productions).
Film: Undertow, Around the Block. TV: The Secret She Keeps S2, Wakefield, The Wrong Girl, Redfern Now 2. Other: Online Series: A Chance Affair. Training: NIDA. Pronouns: He/Him
Awards: 2017 Helpmann for best Male Actor in a Supporting role in a Play

Jacob’s a descendant of the Daly River people, West of Darwin and has spent the last 20 years living, working and creating across the Eora Nation. He graduated from the NIDA Design Course in 2005. In 2010, he designed the set for OF EARTH AND SKY for Bangarra and received a Green Room Award for […]

Jacob’s a descendant of the Daly River people, West of Darwin and has spent the last 20 years living, working and creating across the Eora Nation.
He graduated from the NIDA Design Course in 2005. In 2010, he designed the set for OF EARTH AND SKY for Bangarra and received a Green Room Award for Best Design in Dance. He was appointed Artist-in-Residence at Bangarra the following year and now holds the position of Head of Design. Jacob has designed sets for Bangarra’s annual productions since 2010, including DARK EMU, BENNELONG, PATYEGARANG, LORE, OUR LAND PEOPLE STORIES, TERRAIN, BLACK and WARUMUK – IN THE DARK NIGHT. In 2018 Jacob was awarded a Helpmann Award for Best Scenic Design for his set design in BENNELONG.
For Belvoir Jacob has designed: RANDOM, RUBEN GUTHRIE, JESUS HOPPED THE ‘A’ TRAIN and YIBIYUNG.
His other theatre credits include; WONNANGATTA, THE LONG FORGOTTEN DREAM, THE REMOVALISTS, TUSK TUSK/LIKE A FISHBONE (Sydney Theatre Company); BLACK TIES (Ilbijerri); and MACBETH (Bell Shakespeare);
In 2021 Jacob became Creative Artist in Residence at Sydney Festival. For Sydney Festival he has created the works ALWAYS and PROCLAMATION, large scale artwork that became backdrops for THE VIGIL and the WUGULORA CEREMONIES.
Jacob’s film and television credits include Production Designer and Co-Creature Designer on Goalpost Pictures CLEVERMAN Season 2 for the ABC; and Production Designer on Stephen Page’s 2015 feature film SPEAR for Arenamedia.
Jacob holds a position as a Board Director at Belvoir.

Keerthi is a Sydney based set and costume designer for live performance and film. Keerthi is a National Institute of Dramatic Art, BFA (Design for Performance, 2019) graduate, and a member of the Australian Production Design Guild. Keerthi has designed set and costumes for Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner, Chewing Gum […]

Keerthi is a Sydney based set and costume designer for live performance and film. Keerthi is a National Institute of Dramatic Art, BFA (Design for Performance, 2019) graduate, and a member of the Australian Production Design Guild.
Keerthi has designed set and costumes for Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner, Chewing Gum Dreams at the Old Fitz, Chop Chef at Riverside Theatres, and designed the costumes and was a set realiser on Belvoir’s At What Cost.
Keerthi has been an associate designer on a wide range of theatre shows including Sydney Theatre Company’s Grand Horizons, Belvoir’s Jungle and the Sea, Wayside Bride, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Boomkak Panto, Cursed!, and Hayes Theatre Co’s Young Frankenstein.
Keerthi has also worked as a props supervisor on Belvoir’s Into the Woods and Blessed Union.
Keerthi’s film credits include working as a design assistant on Operation Buffalo, as production & costume designer on various short films and music videos and most recently as an art director on SBS’s mini series Appetite. Keerthi is one of Belvoir’s Artistic Associates. She is currently working across theatre and art installation.

Chloe Ogilvie is a Yamatji Nanda woman from Western Australia, where she graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts Specializing in Lighting Design. Chloe works mostly as a designer but has crossed over into other areas such as Production Management and Event Coordination. Chloe has been a resident Artist with Black Swan for […]

Chloe Ogilvie is a Yamatji Nanda woman from Western Australia, where she graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts Specializing in Lighting Design. Chloe works mostly as a designer but has crossed over into other areas such as Production Management and Event Coordination. Chloe has been a resident Artist with Black Swan for three years and is currently co curating the Maali Festival. Chloe Ogilvie is also a member of the arts collective The Farm where she has designed and production managed a range of shows including Throttle, Cockfight (Drover Award Winner), Ninth Wave, Tide (Helpmann Award Winner) and Depthless. Other highlights of hers include, Spinifex Gum (LD/ALD), Bungul (ALD), The Visitors (LD), Winyan Boga Yurringa (Belvoir, ALD), Fever and The Fret (Yirra Yaakin, LD), Bayala (Sydney Festival, Event Coordinator) and Toast (Maiden Voyage Theater Company, LD).

Belvoir St Theatre: At What Cost?, Winyanboga YurringaOther Theatre: As Composer & Sound Design: The Visitors (Sydney Theatre Company), Fences (Sydney Theatre Company), A Raisin in the Sun (Sydney Theatre Company), Riverside’s NToP: Choir Boy, Bangarra Dance Theatre: Dance Clan, Dubboo (Assistant), Illbijerri Theatre: Black Ties, Ensemble Theatre: A Letter For Molly, Hothouse Theatre: Unprecedented […]

Belvoir St Theatre: At What Cost?, Winyanboga YurringaOther Theatre: As Composer & Sound Design: The Visitors (Sydney Theatre Company), Fences (Sydney Theatre Company), A Raisin in the Sun (Sydney Theatre Company), Riverside’s NToP: Choir Boy, Bangarra Dance Theatre: Dance Clan, Dubboo (Assistant), Illbijerri Theatre: Black Ties, Ensemble Theatre: A Letter For Molly, Hothouse Theatre: Unprecedented As Associate Composer/Sound Design: The Tempest, The Seven Stages of Grieving, Other Theatre: As Actor/Performer: Bangarra Dance Theatre: Wudjang: Not the Past, Baleen Moondjan: Adelaide Festival (Stephen Page) Film: As Lead Character Singing Voice: Bran New Dae (2009) TV: As Composer/ Musical Contributor: Gods of Wheat Street (ABC1), Offspring (Network 10), Winners & Losers (Seven Network), Underbelly Chopper (The Nine Network) Radio/Music: As Recording Artist/Writer Played on triple j, fbi radio, ABC radio, community radio nationwide, 150 000+ streams across platforms Spotify & Apple Music Music: As Performer: Bluesfest Byron Bay, Woodford Folk Festival, Sydney Festival, Adelaide Fringe festival, Brisbane Festival, Friendship Festival (Seoul, Sth Korea), The Aussie BBQ (UK) Awards: APRA Professional Development Award.

David is a video, music and sound designer for theatre, dance, opera, installation, and film. Theatre credits include: composer and sound designer for Scenes from the Climate Era, sound designer for Into the Woods, video designer for Blue, co-sound designer for Packer and Sons (Belvoir); video designer for Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr […]

David is a video, music and sound designer for theatre, dance, opera, installation, and film.
Theatre credits include: composer and sound designer for Scenes from the Climate Era, sound designer for Into the Woods, video designer for Blue, co-sound designer for Packer and Sons (Belvoir); video designer for Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Picture of Dorian Gray, sound designer for Playing Beatie Bow, video and sound designer for A Cheery Soul and The Wharf Revue from 2009-2018 and video designer for Muriel’s Wedding: The Musical, The Hanging, The Effect, and The Long Way Home (Sydney Theatre Company); video and sound designer for The Gospel According to Paul (STCSA/Soft Tread); sound designer for The Lovers (Bell Shakespeare); video designer for Sandsong, Knowledge Ground and Spirited (Bangarra Dance Theatre); video designer for Breaking Glass (Sydney Chamber Opera); composer and sound designer for Superheroes, composer, video and sound designer for First Love is the Revolution and sound designer for Green Park (Griffin Theatre Company); sound designer for RENT (Sydney Opera House), sound designer for Dubbo Championship Wrestling, The Rise and Disguise Of Elizabeth R., Catch Me If You Can, and sound and video designer for Merrily We Roll Along (Hayes Theatre Co); video designer for Possum Magic and The Peasant Prince, and sound designer for Josephine Wants to Dance (Monkey Baa Theatre Company); composition, sound and video designer for Museum of Modern Love and Made To Measure (Seymour Centre); and sound designer for Spring Awakening (ATYP).
David is a National Institute of Dramatic Art graduate and teaches at NIDA.

Luke is Belvoir’s Resident Stage Manager. For Belvoir, he has stage managed King Lear, The Spare Room, Song of First Desire, August Osage County, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Never Closer, Holding the Man, Master and Margarita, The Weekend, Scenes from the Climate Era, Blessed Union, The Jungle and the Sea, […]

Luke is Belvoir’s Resident Stage Manager. For Belvoir, he has stage managed
King Lear, The Spare Room, Song of First Desire, August Osage County, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Never Closer, Holding the Man, Master and Margarita, The Weekend, Scenes from the Climate Era, Blessed Union, The Jungle and the Sea, Tell Me I’m Here, Opening Night, The Boomkak Panto, Stop Girl, My Brilliant Career, A Room of One’s Own, Packer & Sons, Things I Know To, Be True, Counting and Cracking, The Dance of Death, A Taste of Honey, Sami in Paradise, Barbara and the Camp Dogs, Ghosts, The Rover, Mark Colvin’s Kidney, Faith Healer, Twelfth Night or What You Will, The Great Fire, Mortido, Seventeen, Elektra/Orestes, Radiance, The Glass Menagerie, Brothers Wreck, Once in Royal David’s City, Miss Julie, Forget Me Not, Peter Pan (including New York tour), Private Lives, Death of a Salesman, Babyteeth, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Neighbourhood Watch, The Wild Duck (including UK and Europe tours), Namatjira (Belvoir/Big hART), Page 8, The End, That Face, The Promise, Scorched, Antigone, Keating!, The Little Cherry Orchard and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. His other credits include The Pig Iron People, The Give and Take, Bed, La Dispute (Sydney Theatre Company); Like a Fishbone (STC / Griffin); The Government Inspector, The Tempest, The Servant of Two Masters, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew (Bell Shakespeare); Paradise City, Through the Wire (Performing Lines); and Alive at Williamstown Pier (Griffin).

For Belvoir, Brooke has worked as an Assistant Stage Manager (ASM) on Barbara and the Camp Dogs 2019 Tour, Stage Manager on Bliss, ASM on Sami In Paradise, rehearsal Stage Manager on Barbara and the Camp Dogs and ASM cover on Mr Burns. Brooke’s previous roles for other theatre companies include the following For Sydney Theatre Company; ASM on Playing Beatie Bow, Rules […]

For Belvoir, Brooke has worked as an Assistant Stage Manager (ASM) on Barbara and the Camp Dogs 2019 Tour, Stage Manager on Bliss, ASM on Sami In Paradise, rehearsal Stage Manager on Barbara and the Camp Dogs and ASM cover on Mr Burns.
Brooke’s previous roles for other theatre companies include the following For Sydney Theatre Company; ASM on Playing Beatie Bow, Rules for Living, Banging Denmark, Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Testament of Mary. For Force Majeure; Stage Manager on The Last Season and You Animal, You. For Ensemble Theatre; Stage Manager on Crunch Time and Fully Committed. For Froudist & Cubby House Co Production Stage Manager on Ruby’s Wish (2018 Tour). Brooke graduated from NIDA’s Technical Theatre and Stage Management Course In 2016