Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre
November 16, 2018

Our narrators, set against a bleak set of corrugated iron and louvered windows, quickly reveal that discrimination is alive and well in the South Australian town of Port Pirie in 1947. The ‘white men’ are offered the first jobs being queued for, begging the question, who are the other men?

It’s a galling start in a country famous for the ‘fair go’ and these are not the only dark undercurrents in this grand undertaking. The extensive research into this historical fiction by playwright Elena Carapetis shows us, if nothing else, the indomitable spirit of migrants.

Deborah Galanos as Vasiliki in State Theatre Company South Australia’s The Gods of Strangers. Photo © Chris Herzfeld

The past lives of the characters all collide in a tale dotted with smatterings of superstition and religion. There are secrets and lies and backgammon and the mention of a ‘dago’. There is a good old-fashioned brawl, tunes from Tosca, and some home made tsipouro by the shot. This show has (almost) everything.

Directed by Geordie Brookman, the accents are consistently excellent in this dialogue heavy tale. Carapetis makes a good point...