Many will know of the great Polish writer’s short story from Barbara Streisand’s epic film adaptation which she produced, directed and starred in herself.
This latest adaptation, by Gary Abrahams, Elisa Hearst and Evelyn Krape, takes a very different approach. As the play is performed there is a constant shifting between English and Yiddish. The adaptation also incorporates a very significant extra character, simply credited in the program as the Figure
The Figure is hard to describe. At times she is the narrator. Mostly she is interacting with Yentl like a dark spirit, in a malicious, antagonistic way.
The drama was performed by just four actors , each giving compelling performances.
Amy Hack played the strong-willed, anguished Yentl, a young woman who doesn’t want to play a typically subservient female role of being a wife and mother, and wants to devote her life to the study of the Torah.
‘Women were prohibited from studying the Torah. This was strictly a male’s domain. When her father passes, she decides on a course of action. She does her best to look like a man and takes off to the nearest Yeshiva.
It is there that Yentl finds Avigdor, played by Nicholas Jaquinot, who she has an instant rapport with, and they study together. Avigdor was set to marry his great love Hodes, played by Genevieve Kingsford, however her parents refuse to let them get married, because there is bad blood in the family. Avigdor’s brother had committed suicide. Avigdor loves Yentl (that’s a whole other story!) so he matchmakes Yentl with Hodes. Yentl is rather recalcitrant but agrees to the marriage which is of-course doomed. Yentl finds herself further drawn in to a labyrinth which she finds it increasingly difficult to extricate herself from. In the midst of all this chaos, the Figure character, played brilliantly by Evelyn Krape, causes her even greater grief.
Gary Abrahams directs his passion project with his creative team including set and costume designer Dann Barber, lighting designer Rachel Burke and Lurke Grana, sound designer and composer Max Lyandvert, and dialect coach and consultant Rilke Margolis intricately bringing together the stage world.
Verdict. This show was well worth a visit. There was plenty to engage with.
Most of all, it is the journey of the central character’s fraught journey that has the most appeal. As the Brad wrote, ‘to thine ownself be true, and thou cannot be untrue to any man’. Yentl stays true to herself and her commitment to her faith which is her everything. In the process she has to let go of those she holds most dear. Hers is a solitary path.
This is an accomplished production that has come up to Sydney after having two successful seasons in Melbourne. An intense experience, YENTL is currently playing a season at the Playhouse theatre at the Sydney Opera House.
Production photography by Jeff Busby
