Isaac Bashevis Singers’ beloved short story ‘Yentl’ is finally brought to the stage, to the Marylebone Theatre, and runs until April 12th.
‘Yentl’ was a critically acclaimed 1983 movie directed, starred, written and produced by Barbra Streisand. It tells the story of a young woman – Yentl (played beautifully by Amy Hack) – who, forbidden by Orthodox law from studying Jewish scripture, and after her father passes away, disguises herself as a man (Anshel) and steps into a world of learning and in the process meets Avigdor (Ashley Margolis) who is forbidden from marrying the love of his life Hodes (Genevieve Kingsford) due to a family shame. Yentl has an intense urge to learn and study the Talmud, hence by passing herself off as a man she is entitled to do so out in the open and in school. This play (there is no music in this show) is partially told via a narration from a character called The Figure (Evelyn Krape) who guides Yentl (and us) through her journey where we route and yearn for her, but when she gets in too deep she is constantly trying to figure out ways to not be exposed as a woman, even when she is talked into marrying Hodes.
The story is a beautiful one and unbelievably has only been produced before for the stage twice, in 1975 in NYC, and then again in 2022 in Australia, and this new London production is from the same Australian team. The narrative structure with The Figure takes a bit of getting used to, but once Yentl becomes Anshel we get pulled into the story and become mesmerised and hypnotised by the simple and beautiful narrative, and Yentl’s innocence and strength, ably backed up by great direction by Gary Abrahams, with a simple basic set and lighting that is just about perfect. You owe it to yourself to see this Kadimah Yiddish Theatre’s production, it’s a slow burn but ultimately will win you over immensely.