Fiddler on the Roof

THE STORY

Anatevka, the setting of our story, is a small village in Czarist Russia at the turn of the century. Tradition governs the life of the poor Jewish community. It dictates the way they dress, eat and pray, the relationship each has with family, friends and even with God - perhaps above all with God. Without tradition their lives would be as shaky as .... a Fiddler on the Roof.

Tevye, the milkman, and his wife Golde, have five daughters and since in those days young couples were not permitted to wed for love, it was the matchmaker, who with the father's agreement, arranges marriages. Tevye agrees that his eldest daughter Tzeitel, shall marry Lazar Wolf, the butcher, a widower. In the tavern celebrations which follow the announcement, the inbred hostility between the Jews and Russians is temporarily forgotten. Tzeital, however, is not happy. She is in love with Motel the tailor and convinces her father that he is the bridegroom for her. Tevye does not want to confess to his wife that the bargain with Lazar Wolf is broken and he invents a dream. He says Golde's dead grandmother appears giving her blessing to the betrothal; so Golde accepts the situation. The Orthodox wedding is a great festival for the whole Jewish community, but it is interrupted by the brutal antisemitic attack of the Czar's Cossacks, who overturn the tables and scatter the terrified guests.

Hodel, Tevye's second daughter now falls in love, and against tradition marries Perchik, a young student who is later sent to a Siberian prison for his revolutionary activities against the Czar.

Chava, the third daughter meets a young Russian, Fyedka, and confesses her love to her father. The match is quite unthinkable in his eyes: a Jew to marry a Russian! She does marry her lover, however, and is banished from the family by the unhappy Tevye. Czarist oppression of the Jews worsens and eventually the whole village is forced to pack their meagre possessions and leave their beloved Anatevka to seek a refuge in the New World.

THE CAST

TEVYE, the milkman - RAY DARLINGTON
GOLDE, his wife - BERYL WINDWOOD

his daughters
TZEITEL - SUE STURT
HODEL - CELIA SUTTON
CHAVA - STEPHANIE SWAIN
SPRINTZE - DEBORAH STEVENSON
BIELKE - CLAIRE STRINGELL

YENTE, the matchmaker - PAT STAFF
MOTEL, the tailor - DAVID PARTRIDGE
PERCHIK, the student - DEREK STURT
LAZAR WOLF, the butcher - BRIAN STURT
MORDCHA, the innkeeper - BRIAN HAGAN
THE RABBI - DON OXLEY
MENDEL, his son - ALF KNOTT
AVRAM, the bookseller - RON LEE
NACHUM, the beggar - JOHN COLEMAN
GRANDMA-TZEITEL - JEAN SMEATON
FRUMA-SARAH - CHRISTINE MULLORD
THE CONSTABLE - PETER GUMBRILL
FYEDKA - TIM LAWRENCE
SHANDEL, Motel's mother - JUDITH LLOYD
THE FIDDLER - PETER HOOKER

MOMMAS & DAUGHTERS
PAT COOKE, BARBARA EYLES, DENISE HAGAN, ANN HAWKINS, PAM JOHNSON NORMA KNOTT, JEAN LAWRENCE, BETTY LEE, JOAN MALLINSON MARY STEVENS MAUREEN DUNHAM, CHRISTINE DURRANT, MARGARET FISHER, JEAN FLOODGATE, ANN GODFREY, DOREEN GREEN, JANE GRIFFITHS, VINA MOODIE, JUL1E SMITH, MARY TURRALL-CLARKE.

POPPAS & SONS
HOWARD COLLIS, JOHN GORDON, BILL HOLT, DAVE JEFFREYS JOHN CARTMAN, RAY FISHER, PETER GARDINER, MARK HURSTON, BRIAN SWAIN, DON TRUSSLER.

CHILDREN
JULIE FISHER, MELAN1E OXLEY, ELIZABETH TURRALL-CLARKE, MARK and ANDREW HAGAN