The musical "Fiddler on the Roof" is staged at the Jewish Cultural Centre in Belgrade on October 15 from 8pm. The story of Tevye the milkman and his daughters plays out on a stage at Jevrejska 16, in a production that has been returning to the repertoire for several seasons now.

The original is one of the most-performed musicals in the history of the genre, set in a Jewish village in Tsarist Russia at the start of the twentieth century. The material is built around a conflict that still needs no translation: a father who wants his daughters married by custom, and three daughters who each in turn choose otherwise. Every next decision pushes the edge of what Tevye can accept, until history from outside decides for all of them.

The Belgrade production is carried by the Oneg Shabbat organisation at the Jewish Cultural Centre, and what is on stage is not only an acting company but live musicians - an essential difference for a musical built on this kind of score. The klezmer arrangements this title is known for land differently when the double bass and the accordion are in the room rather than on a recording.

The Jewish Cultural Centre in Belgrade is not a thousand-seat hall, and that is part of the effect. A story about a community losing its land, performed for a hundred or so people in the space of the very community whose history it tells, carries a weight the same production struggles to reach in a big theatre.

Tickets through tickets.rs start at 2,000 dinars, around 1,050 denars. The production returns to the repertoire after several runs in previous seasons, which means the dates are not weekly and they do not sit around waiting.