Yentl arrives in the Harbour City
When the production opened in Melbourne in 2022, it was the first new adaptation since Barbra Streisand's renowned 1983 musical film.
It’s a story written by the one Yiddish writer who won a Nobel Prize for Literature. And after a hugely successful run in Melbourne, Kadimah Yiddish Theatre’s production of Yentl is finally coming to Sydney, showing at the Sydney Opera House no less.
When the production opened in Melbourne in 2022, it was the first new adaptation since Barbra Streisand’s renowned 1983 musical film.
It’s a bold and contemporary adaptation of the play, that deals with gender identity, religious and sexual politics and the collision of all of this with traditional Yiddish culture.
The story is of a young woman who just wants to study religious scripture, something that Jewish Orthodox tradition of the time forbids. When her father dies, Yentl emancipates herself by dressing in male guise, determined to live as a man to continue her studies.
As co-creator and director Gary Abrahams said: “Yentl is an incredibly transgressive and irreverent story that was sanitised and made very PC by the film. But Bashevis Singer’s story is so much stranger, so much more unsettling, so much more rooted in a world full of demons, dybbuks and ghosts.”
According to Evelyn Krape, who is part of the cast, the story of Yentl is still exceptionally relevant today.
“Even though you could say today that most women have a life both inside the home and out, it’s not really the point. The point is the way in which women are seen in this society,” she said. “Women still fight in every way to be recognised and respected, treated as equals.
Producer Anton Berezin described the production as “powerful” and a “beloved fable of ambition, loss, belonging and identity”.
“Kadimah’s astounding new production brings this classic tale into the 21st century. We can’t wait to share this beautiful and genuinely unique piece of theatre with Sydney audiences.”
Directed by Gary Abrahams and starring Amy Hack, Nicholas Jaquinot, Evelyn Krape, and Genevieve Kingsford, Yentl has won four Green Room Awards, including outstanding writing and performance.
Yentl will be playing at the Playhouse, Sydney Opera House from October 17. For tickets: yentl.com.au
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