Fiddler on the Roof is set in the small Jewish village of Anatevka, Russia, in 1905 and is concerned primarily with the efforts of Tevye, a dairyman, his wife, Golde, and their five daughters to cope with their harsh existence under Tsarist rule. REVIEW
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
Performed at The Arts Theatre by Cambridge Operatic Society
Reviewed by Julie Petrucci for Combinations
Fiddler on the Roof is set in the small Jewish village of Anatevka, Russia, in 1905 and is concerned primarily with the efforts of Tevye, a dairyman, his wife, Golde, and their five daughters to cope with their harsh existence under Tsarist rule.
DAVID GOWER’s Tevye was a splendid creation. He had an exceptional grasp of the role bringing out all the humour of the character and created a believable warm relationship with his wife and daughters: particularly the three eldest daughters, nicely played by CAT NICOL, ROWENA WINN and RACHEL JARMY. CAROLINE DYSON as wife Golde has a wonderful operatic voice but her performance lacked the necessary empathy with Tevye. Having said that there was a lovely touching scene when the two sang Do You love Me?
There was a fine performance from ALAN HAY as Lazar Wolf the village butcher and SIMON YOUNG made a strong impression as Perchik the student, bravely standing out against the village traditions, endeavouring to convince people things were changing. Good support was given by RICHARD SOCKETT (Mordcha the inn keeper), LESLIE WHEELER (Rabbi), KIRSTY ALLEN (Yente, the matchmaker), LEN PACKMAN (Avram the bookseller) THOMAS O’CONNOR (Motel the tailor), GEOFF WILLIAMS as Fyedka and young TOM BYERS as The Fiddler.
On the debit side, things got off to a rather slow start. It was obvious the ensemble was not too familiar with the movement of the opening number and, unusually these days, the soloists were not miked up. The voices of the young girls were at times overpowered by the overloud and surprisingly discordant orchestra. The Constable was not recognisable as a figure of authority and therefore the conflict between the Jews and Russians was not clearly defined.
However, there was plenty on the credit side in this show. Technically the show was brilliant. The lighting design by Toby Larner was absolutely stunning. The staging was superb with the flown in gauze panels adding an extra dimension. Director Nicola Samer decided to play up the comedy rather than the tragedy of the show and she certainly succeeded with some lovely directorial touches. The mixture of relationships, tradition, and village life all came together in a stunning, nightmarish visualisation of The Dream with some superb ensemble movement which did credit to Choreographer Lucinda Brereton.
Allegedly the most performed musical ever Fiddler on the Roof like Les Miserables doesn’t exactly send you on your way full of the joys of life but ‘Fiddler’ shows that with humour people have the strength of will to overcome adversity. CAOS once again gave us a show well worth seeing.