Here was a production that captured the warm humanity of this moving musical about a depressed Jewish minority trying to follow its lifestyle in an alien Russia.
Symbol of the community’s insecurity is the youth perched on the roof sawing away at a fiddle (in this instance played by a girl, Glenys Collinson). And Walmsley Operatic Society at its Egerton (Bolton) schoolroom theatre had her flitting wraith-like across the stage at several climactic moments of the play. I have not seen this figure used quite so effectively before.
Producer David Tyldsley is to be congratulated on this imaginative touch and also on his technical skill in making the most of an inadequate stage. Characters move the furniture off as others insinuate themselves into the open spaces to maintain a non-stop action.
Alec Greaves as Tevye, the Bible-quoting milkman, and Audrey Raistrick, as his wife Golde, sang their duets with impressive emotion. The former made the most of the comedy opportunities, but his spouse was not as dominating as the character demands.
Philip Lloyd was excellent as the timorous tailor. Choreographer Sonia Joy Talbot made a notable contribution to the general atmosphere with the descriptive dances she devised.
