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| Yentl | Review |
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TheaterMania.com
Reviews Oct 30, 2002
New York
Yentl
Reviewed By: Barbara & Scott Siegel
When Yentl cries out, "Papa, can you hear me?"
you expect to hear a song -- but no song follows. The
memory of Barbra Streisand's voice is wrapped around the
current revival of this play like a tallis. If the semi-musical
movie's fame has outstripped that of the straight play
upon which it was based, at least you can now see Yentl
in a style and setting much closer to its roots. It has
been revived by the Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre and is
presently being performed in Yiddish (an English translation
may be heard through headphones) at the company's new
location, the PCMH Theatre on West 36th Street.
In 1973, Yentl, based on a short story by Isaac Bashevis
Singer, opened Off-Broadway. Written by Singer and Leah
Napolin, the play was a critical and commercial success:
A pro-feminist piece steeped in gender confusion as well
as an attack on religious bigotry, it proved to be a magnet
for controversy. No wonder, then, that it vaulted to Broadway,
where it ran for 10 months. Revived almost 30 years after
its theatrical unveiling, it's fascinating to see how
downright quaint and obvious its themes are now. A conservative
(might we say Orthodox?) Yiddish mentality that would
have scorned the play years ago now might well embrace
it.
Considering the modest means of the Folksbiene Yiddish
Theatre, the production is imprssively mounted. Robert
Kalfin, who directed the original production, has returned
to do a magnificent job of blending one scene into the
next. He manages to keep a very long and sometimes talky
play moving along. This is particularly important in that
a sizeable portion of the audience is listening to the
dialogue in simultaneous translation: While the actors
on stage are giving full-bodied (and full-voiced) performances,
many of us are hearing a flat, dull reading of the lines
by a single voice through our headsets. In other words,
the play needs as much extra energy as the director can
muster.
English-speaking audience members would be well advised
to listen through the translation with one ear and leave
the other ear free to hear the rich and expressive Yiddish
spoken by the actors. There are only three Yiddish theaters
left in the world -- the Folksbiene here in New York,
plus one in Montreal and another in Israel. New York,
of course, once had a thriving Yiddish theater out of
which the likes of Edward G. Robinson and Paul Muni made
the leap to mainstream stardom. Here, the leap is in the
other direction: A story that attained mass popularity
is being presented in a very basic, unadorned way.
The gifted Eleanor Reissa plays Yentl, the rabbi's daughter
who yearns to study the Torah. After her father's death,
Yentl runs away from her village dressed as a boy so that
she might pass as a student. She meets Avigdor (Tzahi
Moskovitz in an impressive performance), who befriends
her and whom she comes to love almost as much as she loves
the Torah. Avigdor already loves the beautiful Hadass
(Vera Felice), but Hadass soon falls in love with the
shy and sensitive Yentl -- who, of course, is masquerading
under another name.
It seems only natural that, as it happens, all the local
girls fall in love with the only fellow around who isn't
a brute or lug. When told that "he" could have
any girl in town, Yentl impetuously asks Hadass to marry
"him" -- and, indeed, they do wed. In a clever
bit of flimflam, Yentl continues to get away with the
deception because Hadass is as unworldly she is; Yentl
can tell "his" bride anything about sex, and
she will believe it.
Eventually, though, the strain of lying to Hadass and
Avigdor takes its toll. Unlike M. Butterfly, which Yentl
long preceded, what ultimately happens to our protagonist
is a function of his/her own choice. A simple story in
some ways, but morally quite complex, Yentl makes for
compelling theater.
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