The story tracks a Jewish shtetl in 1905 Russia, scratching out a living under the iron rule of the czar and coexisting uneasily with the dominant Christian community. The shtetl's world-weary milkman, Tevye, also has family dramas to attend to. With the help of the village matchmaker, Tevye's wife Golde has arranged a marriage for their eldest daughter, Tzeitel, to the well-off village butcher. Tzeitel, however, wants to marry the meek tailor instead. Tevye manages to resolve this conflict with some hilariously inventive manipulations. But then he faces a bigger problem when daughter number two falls for a Jewish radical, and an even worse one when daughter number three runs off with a Russian Christian. In this, the issue of tradition versus change is paired with another immigrant concern -- the threat of assimilation.
The production features an array of performing talent led by the company's artistic director, David Arisco, in the central role of Tevye the dairyman, who has his hands full with five daughters and a strong-willed wife. Arisco is well suited to the role, offering warmth, spirit, a strong singing voice, and a surprising physical agility for such a large man. He gets excellent support from the entire cast, in large roles and small, notably from the redoubtable Margot Moreland as his sharp-tongued wife, Golde.
The original production won a slew of Tony Awards, but that doesn't mean Fiddler is perfect. Both musically and dramatically, it peaks before its first-act conclusion -- all of the major numbers, "Tradition," "If I Were A Rich Man," and "To Life," occur before the intermission -- and the expert, beautifully detailed staging of co-directors Barbara Flaten and Arisco can't overcome the wandering storyline. The plot shifts from romance and comedy to historical drama, as the community is threatened by czarist forces and faces expulsion from its village. In this, Fiddler reveals another dimension: The musical as creation myth, recounting the origins of Russian Jewish Americans. In the end, the three married daughters scatter to the four winds with their husbands, but Tevye heads for America with his wife and younger daughters. It's the picture of those two girls tailing along that gives the show its final poignancy. These and millions of other bewildered children are headed for that great enigma called America to become the grandparents of many of those in the audience: Fiddler ends where a lot of American family histories begin.
Another Russian tale set in the same time period, I Take Your Hand in Mine, unwinds under distinctly different circumstances. The bare-bones Edge Theatre, which has been producing in South Florida since 1995, has bounced from one performance space to the next. Now Edge producer Jim Tommaney has found a dandy warehouse/gallery space. With traditional theater accouterments lacking, there's something downright romantic about Edge's guerrilla persona and Tommaney's quest to present challenging theater.
I Take Your Hand in Mine centers on the relationship between famed Russian playwright Anton Chekhov and his actress amour, later his wife, Olga Knipper; it is drawn from their extensive correspondence. These widely known love letters, which have been the subject of several stage projects, have the potential for emotionally engaging theater, but sadly, little such is in evidence here. The show is notable for two reasons. First is the audacity of its credited writer, Carol Rocamora, for claiming the title of author when that of adapter and translator might perhaps be more accurate. Second, Jim Tommaney is credited as director, when in truth little direction of any sort is in evidence. The production, in which the actors recite roles from hand-held scripts, is really no more than a staged reading and a cursory one at that. The conceit has some potential for in-the-moment electricity, but Leonard Krys as Chekhov and Ivelin Giro as Olga mainly stay seated, reading their roles in a flat, literary style. Krys, an experienced actor from Argentina, has a resonant voice and a stately demeanor, while Giro, an actress and international fashion model, offers poise and gentle warmth. But neither seems at ease with the text, which rolls along without much tonal variety or momentum.
