A Rom is a Rom even in Africa is a comedy, yet it addresses one of the eternal issues of humanity, regardless of nationality or place of residence: ‘parent-children’ problems. Neighbours Kushnary, a Cossack, and Roma Timofiy Syvo spend their days running after a chance to visit their children. Their children have no time to spend with them, to ask how they are, and the parents are dying for attention.

The play opens with an inebriated Timofiy lamenting to his wife about being alone, their desire for grandchildren, and for time with their children. We then move to the children, who rattle on about their daily lives and problems, with little mention of their parents. It is only when they receive garbled news which they take to mean their father passing that they all appear at his home. Fortunately, it turns out that the father is alive, but the idea that it takes alarming news for them to come together is even more alarming. A wedding and the birth of a grandson consecrate their reformed relationship, teaching us all what true values are.