Lively night in store at Town Hall with ‘Fiddler on the Roof’

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

There’s just under a week to go before Claregalway’s 9 Arch Musical Society present the ever-popular ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ at the City’s Town Hall Theatre and “rehearsals are at fever pitch”, according to Keelly Cavanagh of the group.

The musical drama, with a cast of more than 60 talented members from Claregalway and surrounding areas, will play the Town Hall from next Wednesday to Saturday, November 13-16 inclusive.  And it’s all systems go right now.

The musical is set in Anatevka, Russia, in 1905, and centres on Tevye (Alan Greaney) a poor dairyman. He and Golde, his wife of 25 years (Róisín Egenton), have five daughters, and must find husbands for them.

Tevye introduces the audience to the towns-people and to the family’s Jewish traditions, as anti-Semitism threatens a community’s way of life.

“Tradition,” he says, provides a delicate balance, like a “fiddler on the roof”.

Local matchmaker Yente, played by Marsha Maly, is aware that Teyve and Golde must marry off their daughters and she informs Golde about a potential husband for their oldest child, Tzeitel. The man in question is Lazar Wolf, a widowed butcher who is the same age as Tzeitel’s father. This presents a problem for the girl who has fallen in love with a young man,

That’s the first in a series of events that cause the dairyman and his wife to examine their place in a rapidly changing world.

Finally, life and Russian politics force them to leave their home in Anatevka.  The show’s best-known song is If I Was a Rich Man, sung by Tevye. In the Nine Arch production, it will be performed by Alan Greaney from Claregalway, who won an AIMS award earlier this year. Alan and Róisín Egenton as Golde will duet on another well-known song Do You Love me. Róisín, who lives in Cregmore, also has an AIMS award.

In addition to beautiful solos, Fiddler on the Roof also features big chorus numbers, such as Tradition, Sunrise Sunset, Sabbath Prayer and Anatevka. And there’s lots of dancing, including the Bottle Dance, all of which should provide a great night’s entertainment, according to Keelly.

The show’s director is David Harkin, who’s originally from Corrandulla and now lives in Galway City.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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