{"id":11807,"date":"2015-04-03T00:05:28","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T07:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=11807"},"modified":"2015-04-01T16:56:42","modified_gmt":"2015-04-01T23:56:42","slug":"anatevka-brought-to-abbotsford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2015\/04\/03\/anatevka-brought-to-abbotsford\/","title":{"rendered":"Anatevka brought to Abbotsford"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arne Larsen as Tevye and Ruth Kult as Golde in Gallery 7 Theatre\u2019s production of Fiddler on the Roof<\/em>. (photo by Dianna Lewis)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Growing up in a Jewish home, I always cherished Fiddler on the Roof<\/em> and its Sholem Aleichem inspiration. I had a copy of the film in the entertainment room, but the recent Gallery 7 Theatre production was only the second time I have seen this classic as a live play, the first time being in high school.<\/p>\n

Gallery 7 did an amazing job highlighting Jewish culture and tradition to audiences last month in Abbotsford, an area that is sparsely Jewish. The company\u2019s executive and artistic director, Ken Hildebrandt, noted that all of the artists and technicians pursued the project with the utmost \u201cpassion, dedication and love,\u201d and it showed.<\/p>\n

Set in the fictional shtetl of Anatevka in czarist Russia, the musical\u2019s subject matter isn\u2019t for the faint-hearted. Tevye, Golde, their daughters and the other villagers experience the trauma of pogroms, the beauty of love and the strength of faith, offering lessons relevant to us even now.<\/p>\n

What word best describes the play? Triumph. Triumph over poverty (the daughters married who they wish despite the lack of dowry) and adversity (antisemitism), and the triumph of women (including in the cast, as the fiddler was played by Abigail Curwen) and tradition (adapting to modernity).<\/p>\n

Tevye is played with realism by Arne Larsen. Outside of the occasional accent slip, Larsen plays the role as if he were living in czarist Russia himself. He sings with honesty, and truly seems to wrestle with the Divine to honor his faith. Tevye is the papa, the one to be obeyed, but, as the play develops, he shows a remarkable love for his daughters, allowing them to marry who they wish \u2013 as long as they are Jewish. Even in the case of Chava (Anastasia McIntosh), who is \u201cdead to him\u201d because she marries Sasha (Sheldon Jeans), a non-Jew, Tevye wishes, \u201cMay G-d be with you.\u201d Then there is Perchik (Kevin Hegeman), who turns everything into a political statement. At one point, he compares the biblical Laban to a modern employer in the socialist sense, one of the play\u2019s many comedic moments.<\/p>\n

The shtetl world was brought to life by the costume and set design of Rafaella Rabinovich, who has a BA from the Rafeket Levy Design School for the Performing Arts in Tel Aviv. She told the Independent<\/em> that it was both a great privilege and a wonderful challenge to put together. (For a profile of Rabinovich, see the article \u201cRelishing theatre life<\/a>.\u201d)<\/p>\n

The play\u2019s one main set, simple by theatre standards, was a very colorful depiction of a village house. The costumes accented some of the characters\u2019 meanings. For example, the police outfits were distinguished for their detail and, when they appeared, one knew trouble was to follow. Tevye was costumed with tzizit and hat, which was used to great purpose at the end of the play when he notes that perhaps Jews wear hats because they are forced to move so often.<\/p>\n

The rabbi in the play, however, more resembled a modern non-Orthodox rabbi in appearance with his clean shave and, at one point, he is caught drinking rather than praying. This bit of artistic licence contributed to Walt Derksen\u2019s performance seeming less believable from a historical perspective. The play could have also used more attention to lighting.<\/p>\n

While it wasn\u2019t Broadway, Gallery 7\u2019s Fiddler<\/em> was a believable drama about triumph over adversity, and the strength of love. Many audience members were visibly moved. And, for this reviewer at least, the play brought a little welcome Yiddishkeit to his neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Gil Lavie<\/strong> is a freelance correspondent, with articles published in the <\/em>Jerusalem Post, <\/em>Shalom Toronto and Tazpit News Agency. He has a master\u2019s of global affairs from the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arne Larsen as Tevye and Ruth Kult as Golde in Gallery 7 Theatre\u2019s production of Fiddler on the Roof. (photo by Dianna Lewis) Growing up in a Jewish home, I always cherished Fiddler on the Roof and its Sholem Aleichem inspiration. I had a copy of the film in the entertainment room, but the recent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[3550,3548,3299,3549,3300],"class_list":["post-11807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-abbotsford","tag-anatevka","tag-fiddler-on-the-roof","tag-gallery-7","tag-rafaella-rabinovich"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}