Amy Hack as Yentl [Manuel Harlan]

ALTHOUGH many audiences will be familiar with the glossy 1983 Barbra Streisand film musical, Kadimah Yiddish Theatre’s stage version of Yentl – transferring to London following an acclaimed Australian run – returns to the bittersweet spirit of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s original 1962 short story.

It follows Yentl (Amy Hack), a young Jewish woman whose hunger for learning, nurtured by her late father, leads her to leave home and assume the identity of a male student, Anshel, cutting her hair and adopting men’s attire.

Although she rejects the traditional path of marriage and children open to her, Yentl hasn’t anticipated falling for a fellow student Avigdor (Ashley Margolis), in the yeshiva, who himself is in love with local beauty Hodes (Genevieve Kingsford).

Set in an 1870s Polish shtetl and reimagined by writers Gary Abrahams, Elise Esther Hearst and Galit Klas, the story resonates strongly today with its themes of identity, gender inequality, the quest for knowledge, and its queer and feminist inflections.

Throughout Yentl’s journey, the Figure (a chameleon Evelyn Krape) – the Yetzer Hora, part trickster and part narrator – is a playful addition to the stage adaptation, encouraging her to defy convention and follow her desires, often causing mayhem along the way.

Confidently directed by Abrahams, the production unfolds bilingually in Yiddish (with surtitles) and English, on Dann Barber’s evocative set.

The first half is occasionally uneven in pace, but it settles more firmly in the second, and the talented quartet shine throughout.

It’s a meandering piece that may not appeal to all audiences, but it’s well told, and it kept me intrigued until its denouement.

Some brief nudity likely informs the age guidance of 14+.

Until April 12
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