Kiddy-Fiddler on the Roof

Now, I know Festival shows are notorious for picking names based on their shock factor, but this is just ridiculous. If there was a Perrier award for the most ludicrous festival show title then Kiddy-Fiddler on the Roof would win hands down.

The story follows a shy history teacher who is falsely accused of a spot of said kiddy fiddling by an alienated student who has been rejected by his peers amid accusations of homosexuality. In predictable fashion we have the local PTA and press combining forces in an all too recognisable outpouring of middle class outrage. The show reaches its obvious conclusion and theoretically we all learn little lessons about tolerance, mob mentality and damn middle England. It all sounds just a little Brass Eye, doesn't it?

The characters are shamelessly two dimensional caricatures: a local news columnist dubbed “the nation's matriarch”; a sex hungry headmaster; an incredibly camp PTA chairman. It's difficult to care what becomes of them. That would be acceptable if the music or comedy was exceptional, but it's unrelentingly mediocre.

The cast mostly have acceptable voices and the small orchestra does a capable job, but the acoustics at Roxy Main are horrendous and large portions of the audience struggled to make out the lyrics of the musical numbers. Worst of all, there's actually a paedophile/paediatrician joke – the modern equivalent of asking why the chicken crossed the road. Let's hope the folks at Perrier have introduced that new award then, or Kiddy-Fiddler on the Roof will likely be going home empty-handed.