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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Mark Lawson

Fiddler on the Roof review – shtetl showstoppers speak to the present

Raphael Papo plays in Fiddler on the Roof.
Thrilling … Raphael Papo in Fiddler on the Roof at Regent’s Park Open Air theatre. Photograph: Marc Brenner

By starting Fiddler on the Roof at 7.45pm, Jordan Fein’s revival contrived that Sunrise, Sunset – the musical’s devastating lament for the speed of spent life – was sung as darkness fell on Regent’s Park on Tuesday. Only outdoor theatre could contrive such a sublime effect.

But there are other benefits. Trevor Nunn’s memorable 2018 version used the tight confines of the Menier Chocolate Factory to emphasise the cheek-by-jowl poverty and claustrophobia of the shtetl Anatevka in 1905, while Fein uses his venue to emphasise the community’s vulnerability – literally with no roof over their heads and surrounded by woods from which the Russian tsar’s pogrom police suddenly appear.

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