Artistic director Maitland Schnaars endeavours to find a nice balance when programming the Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company season, requiring a mix of humour, tenderness and powerful plays that explore political issues.
He found the latter for the theatre company in 2026 with At What Cost? by playwright Nathan Maynard, a Pakana man from the Trawlwoolway nation of Lutruwita (Tasmania) connected to both the Maynard and Mansell families.
Schnaars has been a longtime fan of the multidisciplinary artist, having had the privilege of acting in Maynard’s debut play The Season on a national tour in 2018, enabling Schnaars to perform on the His Majesty’s Theatre stage for the first time.
“I love his writing, and it also helps that, like me, he’s a Hawthorn supporter,” 59-year-old Schnaars says, a proud Noongar man with connections to Nyaki-Nyaki country.
“The dialogue is naturalistic, and he has a nice blend of humour, where he is really good at utilising the humour to heighten those moments where you go in hard. When he goes in hard, he goes in boots and all.”
Maynard wrote At What Cost? in response to the Tasmanian government’s decision in 2016 to replace its three-part policy for determining Aboriginality, which included documentary proof of ancestry.
It was replaced with a self-identification and communal recognition system requiring individuals to simply ‘tick a box’ when filling out a form, leading to an increase in people claiming Palawa/Pakana (Tasmanian Aboriginal) identity.
“In WA, you need to prove your connection to mob, so we might not have exactly the same issue of ‘tick a box’ here like they do in Tassie, but it is still relevant, and a really good example of a government policy brought in with no consultation, no consideration . . . creating division within a community,” WA Academy of Performing Arts alumnus Schnaars explains.
“What we have here is similar because of past government policies with the Stolen Generation and the persecution of Aboriginal people in the early days that led to a lot of people these days not realising they’ve got heritage connection. Often they find out much later in life that they’ve got connection, and that’s great, but then they start speaking up on our behalf about cultural practices and protocols and safety, and they’ve actually grown up non-Indigenous their whole life.
“What I like about At What Cost? is it’s asking us as mob, ‘What does it mean to be an Aboriginal person? Who has the right to be an Aboriginal and what responsibilities come along with it?’ It’s a bit more than just being connected to having a great, great, great grandfather or great, great, great, great grandmother.”
COVID lockdown-related delays saw At What Cost? premiere on Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre stage in 2022 — with a return season in 2023 — following the story of two couples in Putalina (Oyster Cove), a Tasmanian Aboriginal site of deep cultural and historical significance.
As the unflinching play unfolds, it explores belonging and cultural ownership in contemporary Australia, where identity is not something you can just claim, and emotions and stakes run high when determining who can call themselves Aboriginal.
Directed by Schnaars, the Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company season of At What Cost? features Calen Tassone as Boyd Mansell, Jessie Ward as Boyd’s pregnant wife Nala Mansell and Jarrad Inman as Boyd’s cousin Daniel Mansell, who did not grow up on country.
Daniel falls for Gracie Ranson — a non-Indigenous character played by Aimee Honor making her professional theatre debut — who later claims to be a direct descendant of a Palawa ancestor.
“We don’t have the right to tell people what to think, but we do have the right to encourage people to think,” Schnaars says.
“This piece really does that. It doesn’t give answers, but it encourages you to think and reflect.”
Performed at Subiaco Arts Centre, At What Cost? features several cultural items from the original production, on loan from Belvoir St Theatre before fire destroyed the Surry Hills-based theatre company’s Marrickville production and storage workshop in June.
“Belvoir were kind enough to let us use them, and because of that, we saved those items that would have been in their warehouse, which got burnt down,” Schnaars explains.
“There’s an incredible booka (kangaroo coat in Noongar) and some other skins from Tasmanian kangaroos, which are quite different to here. There is also a beautiful shell bracelet and a handwoven basket, which Sinsa Mansell, who is Nathan’s cousin and an incredibly strong, powerful, fluent Palawa speaker, spent three months weaving for the production.
“It was very generous of Belvoir to let us use these items, so I’m really humbled by that, and fortunately, because we did, they’re still with us.”
At What Cost? is at Subiaco Arts Centre, July 17 to August 1. Tickets at artsculturetrust.wa.gov.au.
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