REVIEW: YENTYL at Marylebone Theatre 6 March – 12 April 2026
‘Steeped in tradition and ritual, an absorbing play full of deeply human desires’ ★★★★★
Adapted from Isaac Bashevis Singer’s 1962 short story, this staged version from Melbourne’s Yiddish Theatre is steeped in tradition and ritual but offers much for today’s audiences. The use of passages in Yiddish gives an added flavour of authenticity, but don’t worry, there are subtitles for those who need a translation.
This is the story of Yentl, a beloved only daughter, who begged her father to allow her to receive religious instruction, a male preserve at the time. She then went on to disguise herself as a young man to enable herself to study Talmudic law in a shtetl.
The story of Yentl was popularised by the 1983 film adaption starring Barbara Streisand. The most memorable and somehow shocking revelation in the film was the nod to sexual orientation. That moment when Yentl wraps cloths tightly around her bosom and dresses herself as a man. It was confusing the heterosexual norms of the day and questioning the roles of women.
The resulting complication of falsifying gender is so much stronger when the story has the added advantage of ‘The Figure’. This is a new character, a kind of Jewish conscience played by Evelyn Krape with enormous relish. She also plays a number of peripheral roles. Her character is best described as a kind of nod to Greek theatre, playing the role of the chorus who comment on the action.
Now to the fun part, this show is quite explicit and includes nudity of both men and women. A profound honesty in the difficulties of pretending to be a man when you don’t have the experience or equipment of a man, is entertaining in itself. That moment when best friend, Avigdor play fights with Yentl, now masquerading as Anshel, and finds the youth so easily pushed around. Or the moment when Anshel has to consummate ‘his’ marriage with Hodes, but how?
Added to these conundrums is the most pressing issue, of the play, that Yentl’s only chance of studying is to be a man. Amy Hack as Yentl epitomises a determination of mind so powerful that her scholarship leads her to question God, with rigorous philosophical discussion centred on the creation of man. How can God not accept her as she is, if he made her?
The success of the play also leans heavily upon the two other major characters. Ashley Margolis as the sex starved Avigdor, is eloquently guilt ridden yet wholly driven by his desires. Genevieve Kingsford as Hodes, is wonderfully naive, and wholly immersed in her own femininity.
The other aspects, the set, the costumes, sound and lighting, are all cleverly at the service of the story and the portrayals of these really strong characters. It is an absorbing play full of deeply human desires, and the forces that get in way of fulfilling them. It also has a very satisfying ending, perhaps not the one we would have written ourselves, but one that feels right.
Creatives & production team
Original short story author
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Co-Writers
Gary Abrahams, Elise Hearst, Galit Klas
Director
Gary Abrahams
UK Set & Costume Designer
Isabella Van Braeckel
UK Lighting Designer
Tom Turner
UK Sound Designer
Julian Starr
UK Fight & Intimacy Director
Yarit Dor
Original Set & Costume Designer
Dann Barber
Original Lighting Designer
Rachel Burke
Original Sound Designer & Composer
Max Lyandvert
Photography by Manuel Harlan
Cast
Yentl
Amy Hack
Hodes
Genevieve Kingsford
The Figure
Evelyn Krape
US Yentl/Hodes
Kandice Joy
Avigdor
Ashley Margolis
