“A FIDDLER on the roof, sounds crazy no?” are the opening words of Joseph Stein’s adaptation of three stories from Tevye and his daughters, short stories set at the turn of 20th century Tsarist Ukraine by the Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem.

The story, that follows the life of poor milkman Tevye (Matthew Woodyatt) as he battles to stay true to his Jewish traditions which are being attacked on all sides, to keep his wife Golde (Jodie Jacobs) and five daughters safe within those traditions and ends in a violent Pogrom, is, on the face of it, a crazy one on which to base a musical.

With no dowry to help his daughters find a good match, the great social changes taking place in the early years of the 20th century overwhelm Tevye, forcing him allow his eldest daughter Tzeitel (Natasha Jules Bernard) to marry an honest poor tailor Motel (Dan Wolff), keeping his second daughter Hodel (Georgia Bruce) from following her heart to join her fiery revolutionary lover Perchik (Greg Bernstein) in exile in Siberia, or, far more devastating, preventing the much-loved Chava (Carys McQueen) from taking the unforgivable step of marrying outside the faith, joining the intellectual Russian Fyedka (Gregor Milne).

The first of those weddings gave director Jordan Fein the chance to lower the enormous canopy that covers the whole of Tom Scutt’s all-purpose single set, to envelop the whole community in the traditions surrounding a Jewish wedding. The joyous dancing that follows, and spirited humorous exchanges between Tevye, Lazar Wolf (Michael S Siegel) the middle-aged butcher who had hoped to marry Tzeitel, and Beverley Klein’s gossiping, Yente the matchmaker (still smarting at the loss of her fee), comes to a violent end as Karl Wilson’s constable leads the local thugs into the start of the Pogrom that will mean that all the Jews in the village of Anatevka will have to sell their homes and possessions and leave within three days. The parallels between Tsarist Russia’s ethnic cleansing of the Ukraine and Putin’s attempt to take over the present-day independent state come over loud and clear.

This new view of a much-loved classic musical, with the expertly-balanced orchestra on stage throughout, allows the Fiddler (Raphael Papo) to become much more involved in the action, staying faithful to Jerry Bock’s score which drew heavily on Eastern European Klezmer music. Visually however, there is a very different look to the production, with those distinctive Marc Chagall images that so marked the original nowhere to be seen , sacrificed for rather more harsh reality.

Whilst there are some beautifully crafted performances to enjoy, and outstanding choral contributions from the whole company, there was room for far more warmth and love to be seen and heard in Tevye and Golde’s tender Do You Love Me duet, enveloping this family that epitomises the struggles of the underprivileged throughout the ages.

Sholem Aleichem’s name translates as “may peace be upon you”, and this expertly-mounted production sends out this message to todays inhabitants of the Ukraine.

GRP

Photograph by Johan Persson