Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl loves boy back and then low and behold, an obstacle falls across their path to blissful, endless happiness. In the case of Wogs in Love, the obstacle is one very obstinate and proud, Greek father.
Touted as Romeo & Juliet meets My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Wogs in Love tells the story of two young Australians from different backgrounds, Anna (Melanie Bolovan) and David (William Toft). As the story goes, all they want is to love one another and be together, but Anna’s strong-willed Greek father Niko (Colin Smith) has other plans. He has always said that the man who wishes to marry his daughter must ask him for her hand in Greek and unfortunately Australian-born David does not make the cut.
Set in the 80s, this play will transport you back to your days of classroom drama. Although a little dated, it simply but sensitively tells the story of two touching and relevant struggles – a man refusing to let go of his identity as those around him fight to assimilate and make a life for themselves in the only land they have ever known to be home. There is a whole host of familiar characters – the carefree and brash younger brother, who at times delivers moments of potent teenage angst. There’s the long-suffering Greek wife and mother, the starry-eyed and frustrated daughter, the sincere and polite young Australian man and of course the stubborn, occasionally racist and at the heart of it all, exceptionally loving father.
Wogs in Love is packed with plenty of humour, moments of tension and frustration and full to the brim with talent from its young and fresh cast. While the content may be nothing new or ground-breaking, it is an enjoyably familiar production about young love and the struggle of migrants who don’t want to say goodbye to home.
