Kadimah Yiddish Theatre proudly presented our award-winning Yentl with Co-Producers, Monstrous Theatre and Neil Gooding Productions in association with Shalom at the Sydney Opera House 17 October - 17 November 2024.
 
From Elsternwick to the Sydney Opera House,  via sold-out seasons at Arts Centre Melbourne and the Malthouse Theatre, this critically acclaimed Yentl won four Green Room Awards including Outstanding Writing and Performance in Melbourne and has been nominated for six 2024 Sydney Theatre Awards in the Independent Theatre Category:  
       > Best Independent Production
       > Gary Abrahams for Best Direction

       > Amy Hack for Best Performance in a Leading Role
       > Evelyn Krape for Best Performance in a Supporting Role
       > Dann Barber for Best Stage Design and for Best Costume Design 
 
Hailed as a bilingual modern masterpiece, Yentl invites audiences to celebrate Yiddish culture and the revival of its endangered language in this new and brilliantly current stage adaptation of Nobel Prize laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer’s iconic short story.
 
Harbour audiences experienced the convergence of religion, gender, sexual politics, and traditional Yiddish culture in this ground-breaking stage adaptation that sets this Yentl apart from the 1975 Broadway play and Barbra Streisand’s 1983 musical film.
 
Gary Abrahams, Co-Writer and Director of ‘Yentl’ | Executive Director of Kadimah Yiddish Theatre writes: ”Yentl is one of those rare examples of a story that manages to be many things at once. It is culturally specific but also absolutely universal. As a character, Yentl means a great deal to many people... It's not for us to label her. Nor is it our job to police how anyone receives her within a contemporary context...” 

Set in a small 1870’s shtetl in Poland, Yentl is the journey of a young woman who defies the Jewish orthodox tradition that forbids females from studying religious scripture. When her father dies, Yentl emancipates herself by dressing in male guise, determined to live as a man to continue her studies. Religion, gender, sexual politics, and traditional Yiddish culture collide as Yentl finds her truth through faith and love.

Isaac Bashevis only wrote in Yiddish, and the exquisite balance of Yiddish (with surtitles) and English transports audiences into Yentl’s world where the challenge of being true to oneself is as relevant today as it was 150 years ago.