An evening of enchantment and surprises

'Fiddler on the Roof ' an adaptation presented by Visakha Vidyalaya Old Girls Association, directed by Indu Dharmasena

Early twentieth century writer Sholom Aleichem's Yiddish story Fiddler on the Roof expanded into a book by Joseph Stein became a highly successful Broadway musical.

It is an enchanting play, high in entertainment potential. It is also a daunting play for an all-girl cast to attempt and present with imagination and skill.

The girls of Visakha Vidyalaya, over seventy of them in the cast, drawn from the Primary school to the senior classes did just that. Under Indu's direction, they did it with understanding, zest, energy, enjoyment and aplomb.

One of the foremost requirements of a musical is the singing strength of its players. And not all of them reached the high standard that some did in this respect. But at all times, good acting and agility of movement on stage captivated the audience.

A typical Jewish village in pre-revolution Russia is immortalized here with its poor, impractical , good hearted characters.

The most lovable of them is Tevye, the milkman, the father of five daughters so convincingly brought to life by Avanti Perera.

Her costume, make-up, stance, gestures, movements and speech rounded off a male character imaginatively and in complete empathy with her role. All the male roles done by girls among them Motel the tailor (Piyasha Perera), Perchik the student (Chamindri Wijayatileke) Lazar Wolf the butcher ( Nilakshi Parndigamage) and the Rabbi (Roshini Weerasiri) were true to life cameos.

Tevye who is Jewish to the core, caught up in his world of matchmakers and tradition begins to realise that change is imminent and is unwittingly but compassionately drawn into changes brought about by his daughters.

Pathos, humour, strengths, weaknesses, give and take and a kind of love jostle each other in the relationship between Tevye and his wife Golde (Avanti Welaratne). Indeed these qualities form the fabric of the play.

Even in a well sustained piece of theatre such as this, some emotional scenes moved, more than others. This was true of Tzeitel's wedding by candlelight according to Jewish rites; the loneliness of the railroad station where Tevye and his daughter say good-bye before she goes to her man and the heart-breaking disowning of his daughter Chava by Tevye because her mate is not of the Jewish faith. However at the end of the play he blesses her.

The surprise of the evening was a theatrical gem in the form of the dream sequence. Tevye and Golde witness it as they lie on their beds, suddenly awakened from sleep.

A scrim of strips of white cloth falls dramatically across half the stage and behind it float white, ghost-like masked shapes one of which wails a warning like a banshee in a high falset to voice.

The play ends with the Jews being forced out of their peaceful village.

I wish that this play could have been tightened,by no means because of its lack of quality. I say this in good faith inspite of the fact that the evening was full of splendour and enchantment.

-Alfreda de Silva

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