FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

Jerry Bock

Cast

Reviews

Jens Daniel Schubert - Sächsische Zeitung

Tewjes world

The first season premiere in Görlitz tells the musical "Fiddler on the Roof"without any shtetl-romance and yet convinces with impressive images and precise character leading.

Never-ending applause at the end of the production: On Saturday evening the audience in Görlitz celebrated the first premiere of the season, Jerry Bock's musical "Fiddler on the Roof". The whole ensemble was honored with great applause for their intensive performance of the poignantly story of Tevye, played by Stefan Bley, whose traditional and well-ordered world is falling apart. Besides the performers the ambitious dance company led by Dan Pelleg and Marko E. Weigert was met with cheering. The conductor of the evening Manuel Pujol and the musicians of the New Lausitz Philharmonic as well as the Choir were rewarded with much applause. Also celebrated was director Sebastian Ritschel, who again created, together with set designer Markus Meyer, a staging with impressive images, which will be remembered.

The milkman Tevye, from which the Jewish storyteller Sholem Aleichem tells, lives a poor and arduous life in Shtetl and dreams about being rich, negotiates with God like he negotiates with the butcher about his milk cow and lives a philosophy, which makes his life more bearable. He feels like a Fiddler on the roof, always trying to create a smart melody and to keep his balance, not to fall from grace and breaking his neck. And he already discovered what keeps him, Tewje, the milkman from Anatevka, in balance: Tradition!

Jerry Bock and Joseph Stein have set the story of Scholem Alejchem to music. It takes the audience into Tewje's thought and world. It conveys the "laughing under tears" of this foreign but yet lovely culture. It revives a touch of the humour and the sophistry of this lost world and also makes one aware of the history of its decline. A sad story of the early 20th century in the far east. A tragic story as it reveals what happened in the middle of the century in central Europe and what is known as Holocaust since "Schindler's List".

The new staging in Görlitz does not try to resurrect the Schtetl again. This world is lost, it only exists in memories, in utensils and property, stored in display cases, like in a museum. Markus Meyer's set design is such a black "display case". It encloses a rostrum, that can be matrimonial bed and wedding table, but also dance floor, village street and train station. Here, dwellers of Anatevka meet in festive wardrobe to join Schabbes and the wedding. The costume design, avoiding any kind of folklore, goes completely without showing the colourful, powerful and modest life of the Schtetl. Everything is black, white or grey, whether Jewish or not. Only the Fiddler, who always appears as if from nowhere every time tradition begins to decline, glows in devilish red.

The clear structured stage and its reduction to a few high-contrast colours are the essential ingredients for the impressive images of the staging: the massive banquet table, the haunted dream, the nightmare of the Pogrom, the intensive farewell scene between Tewje and his daughters and at last the final scene. Here, the Jews of Anatevka stand with their suitcases, bundles and bags in the spotlight. The dark horizon opens and reveals railway lines into nothingness and the little girl in the red coat, a quote from Spielberg's "Schindler's List", steps out from the expelled crowd. This moving image is the climax of the staging.

However, Ritschel's staging is not restricted to arrange memorable images. Very carefully, he leads the characters through the successive scenes. There is Stefan Bley as Tewje, who holds together and links the scenes. There is Yvonne Reich as resolute Golde, his wife, who must take care of house and home and five daughter when Tewje speaks to God or about Him or about what should be written in the bible about Him. There are three daughters of marriageable age with their beloved, who are present at the right time; the butcher, the marriage broker and many other characters, who are in the spotlight only for a short period of time but yet full of life.

It is a remarkable ensemble performance, borne by the commitment of every individual, which justifies the enthusiastic applause.