THEATRE

Characters brought to lif e

Scandal, concluding a three-

week visit of the New York
APA-Phoenix in Toronto, is un-
doubtedly the most successful of
the three productions brought
here by the Royal Alexandra
Theatre.

The comedy, first sfotncad in
1777, satirizes the English so-
ciety of the time, with particu-
jar attention to upper class
hypocrisy and the fashionable
indoor hobby of scandalmonger-
ing indulged in by the idle rich
and their ladies.

The APA directors (Ellis Rabb
and- Hal George) and their ac-
tors, for the most part, avoid
the traditional English “style”
of such plays. But while we wel-
come a fresh approach, espe-

cially one that rejects the pre-

~ ciOusness.too often larded onto
this. type of comedy, we miss the
wit and the subtlety associated
with the genre.

The exception is Rosemary
Harris, whose English stage
background suits her nceeely

\ F °

ERALDED as “America’s
most acclaimed musical,’’
Fiddler On The Roof has
proven at the Toronto box office
to be more popular than ‘even

Harry Belafonte or Broadway’s
“Hello, Dolly!”

‘The scenario of this produc-
tion is based on Sholom Aleich-
_em’s anecdotes about the Jew-
ish community of Anatevka, a
village in Western Ukraine. The
plot centres around the family
of Tevye, the Dairyman (played
in the matinee performance by
Paul: Lipson), his wife Golde,
and his five daughters.

Essentially, the theme of
“Fiddier” deals with how the
Jewish villagers, who for de-

__ cades had been bound by staunch

traditions and customs, are sud-
denly forced to take cognizance
of the fact that they live in
a changing world. And, needless
to say, anything which affects
the life of one inhabitant has its
eventual repercussions through-
out all Anatevka.

First of all, Tevye’s 18-year
old daughter Tzeitel tearfully
begs her father to allow her to
marry the poor tailor Motel,
whom she dearly loves. The fact
that the young couple had al-
ready pledged their troth a year

previously without his know- .

ledge of course upsets Tevye.

in her role as the gossipy Lady
Teazle. She is. altogether charm-

‘ing, but she is also vital and in-
telligent and very effective on
stage.

But though one misses styli-
‘zation in the production as a
whole, the APA company acquits
itself nobly. Its chief virtue is
that the characters come to life,
are real people and not merely
types.

Thig quality is to be found
especially in Helen Hayes as
Mrs. Candour, Sydney Walker
as Sir Peter Teazle, Joseph Bird
as Rowley and Ellis Rabb (the
director) as Joseph Surface.

The School for Scandal was
done here 10 years ago by the
Crest. At that time an unfortu-
nate lapse in taste presented an
objectionable caricature of a
“Jewish moneylender.” The APA
does: not repeat the offense.

Visually the show is hand-
some. Costumes are elegant and

“scene changes are made grace--

fully and musically.

Sholom  nichon’ Sor. ee

"A s dir ectors, cast ee

Fs GiERDAN'S The caus for

is exposed, infamy banished and
wrong-doers reformed, is espe-

cially sensitive, as is the beauti- -

fully spoken epilogue 7 Rose-
.mary Harris.

—Martin Stone. :

Schmitt (GDR).
“And you can't even wipe
the dishes Propet.

The Tast scene, aca villainy: :

Sweet as a Raveena kiss.

HEN talking about Yuri, the Chukchi writer, I should
_ have mentioned that in his Arctic village of 500 there —

are three doctors; no

dropped to half of that of our Eskimos, Still they die and jj —
recently: Yuri attended the funeral of a woman..

_ Set out around her coffin were the familiar things she

would need in the after-life:

machine. Appalled at the idea of its being buried, Yuri

manoeuvred to save it: He told the mourners it would be

wasted because theré was no place to plug it in. He was

asked‘ how he knew, since he had never been there. He re-
| plied that was the unanimous verdict of scientists.

_ For a while. that seemed a ‘clincher.
‘Then one mourner came up with the answer:

“Last year,” he said, “the chairman of our collective

herds died. He is the man who overcame all kinds of ob- ©

_: stacles and got us electricity-as-a result.,He’s had a year .
~ to work: and the kind of man he is you can bet wont seyily :

mange will find a plug-in. i

er a heartwarming. experience

To add to his dilemmas he had

_ just agreed with Lazar Wolf, the

wealthy 62-year old butcher,
that he could have Tzeitel as his
bride according to an arrange-
ment made by Yente, the Match-
maker. Finally, via a hilarious
nightmare sequence, Tevye man-
ages to convince his wife that
Tzeitel should be allowed to
marry whom she herself chooses.

However, the merriment and
dancing at Tzeitel and Motel’s
wedding is marred by an inci-

dent staged by the tsarist police
for the benefit of a visiting of-
ficial. But the long-suffering
Jewish people of Anatevka,

much as they hate the Russian
tsar and all he stands for, seem
to take such incidents as a mat-
ter of course. about which they»
can do nothing.

In contrast to this attitude of
futility is that of the visiting
university student Perchik, who
is a boarder in Tevye’s house-

_hold. Perchik has many “strange

- THE LATEST IN HAIR STYLES

Szur-Szabo (Budapest)

ideas” brought with him from
Kiev, and is considered a radi-
cal by most of Anatevka. It is
he who first dances with a gipl
in public. It is he who tells
Tevye’s daughters that “the
good book teaches you to never
trust an employer.” And it is he
who explains to the poor and
illiterate villagers that the world
is not based on talk or “chat-
ter,” but on what people do to
bring about a change.

It is this young man, with a
tremendous love of and devo-
tion to humanity, whom Tevye’s
second daughter, Hodel, falls in
love with and becomes engaged
to, but not without a bit of a
wrangle with her Papa.

Perchik leaves for Kiev and
Hodel follows. shortly after —
but she must travel to far north-
ern Siberia where Perchik has
since been exiled for his revolu-
tionary activity.

And complication for -Tevye
comes when his third daughter,
Chava, gets married out of her
faith to a Russian boy with nei-
ther her Papa‘s permission nor
his blessing. Of all the shatter-
ing crashes to his beliefs and
traditions, this one seems to be
the most difficult for Tevye to
accept.

The final blow comes with the

». Wallace
“GEORGIA :

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A little land, a lovely land

id : _ Warm as the clasp of a Georgian hand
; __ ; But O, above, beyond all this
i

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sy.
FOR ALL MY CHILDREN

: Here’s how I was taught to spell pumpkin pie: P U
double-nkin, P U double-I, P. U _Soublgnn—spurmse pie.

‘end.

November 25, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page

MOSCOW

wonder their death rate has

including her electric sewing —

-tsarist decree.that all Jews must
leave the Village of Anatevka, 2
well as neighboring villages. —

Full of humor, wisdom and
pathos, Fiddler On The Roof i§
truly a heart-warming expe!
-ience. Although technically there
are rough spots in the produc
tion, they cannot possibly dam-
age the rappor’ © ‘ween actof$
and. audience « ‘shed. in thé
musical’s openii.,  cene. Sholom
Aleichem’s wit, sensitivity an@
love of his people comes throug!
in full impact from besinging

Radio program
on Woodsworth
this Sunday

The Frail Revolutionary: J. 5.
Woodsworth is the title of a pro”
gram to be broadcast on Project’
67, Sunday, Nov. 27 at 4.03 p.
EST on the CBC radio network:

Among those who will b&
heard describing the former cc
national leader as they reme
ber him will be: John G. Diefe
baker, T. C. Douglas, Davi
Lewis, Mrs. Lucy Woodswort!
his widow, Grace McInnes
his daughter, and Tim Buck
Harry J. Boyle will be narrato™