Tense and transgressive but too long
Marylebone Theatre
Forget the Barbra Steisand version, this adaptation goes back to the original short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer. The reviews ranged from 4 to 2 stars for this story of a young woman called Yentl, played by Amy Hack, (‘driven and wholly believable’ The Stage) living in a restrictive turn-of-the-20th-century Jewish community where girls are not able to be formally educated, who disguises herself as a man in order to become a scholar. The production by the Australian Kadimah Yiddish Theatre and directed by Gary Abrahams was considered tense but also too long because of an excess of exposition (‘more subtext, less exposition’ WhatsOnStage). Nevertheless the play’s discussion of such modern issues as gender and inequality were appreciated. Much praise was bestowed on the narrator played by Evelyn Krape.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
4 stars ★★★★
Gary Naylor of BroadwayWorld discussed Evelyn Krape’s narrator as being ‘the agent of transgression, the counterweight to a society that values conformity (Tevye’s “Tradition”) above both honesty and joy. And that’s where the play punches 2026 in the solar plexus (…) the play demands that its audience confront what are today called culture wars. What is the damage wrought by insisting… that individuals deny their specific manifestation of humanity in order to conform to another’s version of what they should be?’
3 stars ★★★
Paul Vale at The Stage found it ‘both richly theatrical and refreshingly uncompromising’ and ‘a potent story, told with imagination and flair’. He described the way ‘Yentl’s journey becomes a pressure cooker of desire and frustration. Through Hack’s marvellously driven and wholly believable Yentl, we get a real sense of that tension building and the dangers they face on the road they have taken.’
Miriam Sallon for WhatsOnStage summed up: ‘It’s a fun yarn, and the cast and crew are clearly trying to tell Yentl’s story in earnest. But perhaps because of the original short format, or perhaps because half the play is in Yiddish with English surtitles, there are so few moments in which someone isn’t explicitly explaining what’s happening. This is understandable given the audience has to contend both with the Yiddish and the many Jewish customs that are key to the plot. But if you’re going to make a short story a two-and-a-half-hour play, it’s going to need .’
2 stars ★★
The Times’ Clive Davis was the harshest critic: ‘Cut 30 minutes or so from the script, and it might take flight. As it stands, this otherworldly tale becomes the equivalent of a long day in the seminary.’
Critics’ average rating 3.0⭑
Yentl can be seen at Marylebone Theatre until 12 April 2026. Buy tickets directly from marylebonetheatre.com\
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