Fiddler on the Roof, Nov. 2nd

Denise Filiatrault's own Un Violon sur le toit brings the Jewish and French communities together.

Martin Larocque in Un Violon sur le toit

I don't think I've ever seen a production of Fiddler on the Roof that I didn't like. I've seen two separate Yiddish productions, played a role in an amateur English version, there was a highly successful version at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, and then of course there's Norman Jewison's spectacular 1971 film version.

I'd even seen rehearsals for a Japanese version online (Youtube video).

But I was thrown for a loop when I saw ads for a French version.

Last year, Montreal's Théâtre du Rideau Vert put on a production of Un Violon sur le toit, directed by Denise Filiatrault, for the 2009 Festival Juste pour Rire (the French version of the Just For Laughs Festival). The production is now being remounted as part of the Festival Sefarad de Montréal, an event celebrating the French-speaking Jewish communities of Spain, Portugal, and North Africa.

Relations between the French and Jewish communities in Montreal have always been tense, to say the least. In recent years, however, Quebec has made attempts to shake off its anti-Semitic past, and there have been some fairly sincere and successful attempts to bridge the gap. Most notably in the arts community. Some years ago The Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre staged a Yiddish version of Michel Tremblay's Les Belles Soeurs, which the playwright himself touted as the best production of that play in translation. It worked because in the early part of the 20th century and up through the 1940s and 50s, the Jewish community and the Francophone community were neighbours, living, working, and playing on the streets and in the alleyways of Montreal's storied Plateau Mont Royal neighbourhood. They lead parallel lives, for a time. So, if a French play can be produced in Yiddish, then why can't an English-language musical, based on a series of Yiddish stories, be produced in French?

My only issue with this production is that the French title doesn't quite capture the spirit of the original metaphor. Un Violon sur le toit simply means a fiddle on the roof. But put that fiddle in the hands of an actual fiddler, and ask him to play while standing on the sloped roof of a rickety house, and the idea becomes something different entirely. “Without tradition,” Tevye explains, “our lives would be as shaky as... as a fiddler on the roof.” Still, I'm sure that nothing really gets lost in translation. After all, the play's the thing, n'est-ce pas?

The Festival Sefarad de Montréal, runs from October 30-November 14, celebrating the art, culture, cinema, and music of the Sephardic community. Un Violon Sur le Toit goes up November 2 at Montreal's Théâtre St. Denis. I'm told the opening will be quite an event, with director Denise Filiatrault on hand. The play runs until the 12th.

Martin Larocque in Un Violon sur le toit

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