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Study, Pray, Love

Almost 40 years after Barbara Streisand directed and starred in the musical screen adaptation of Bashevis Singer’s “Yentl”, a new production is hitting the stages of Israel’s national theater. Though faithful to the original text, the HaBima play is a scintillatingly fresh take on the tale of the young girl who wanted to be a yeshiva boy \ By Maya Cohen

The songs take over when words fail The story of Yentl, the rabbi’s

The story of how Barbara Streisand co-wrote, co-produced, directed and starred in the screen version of Yiddish novelist Isaac Bashevis Singer’s short story “Yentl the yeshiva boy” is a movie in itself. The iconic musical drama first premiered in 1983 and told the story of Yentl, the feisty daughter of a rabbi who rebels against the religious norms preventing women from fulfilling their true potential. Streisand’s film, featuring Michel Legrand melodies, turned this little-known shtetl tale into a Hollywood hit, earning her a Golden Globe and international recognition. This season, HaBima, Israel’s national theater, is bringing Yentl back to life. Dan Almagor, and artistic director Moshe Kaptan, translated and adapted the screenplay while Almagor wrote lyrics to composer Yossi Ben-Nun’s brand-new melodies. At the helm of this Yentl 2.0, is director Rafi Niv, and its main star is actress Roni Dalumi (alternate: Hila Shalev).

musicals throughout his career, including a 2009 production of Yentl in the Tel Aviv based Cameri Theater. “Our adaptation is an evocation of the atmosphere Bashevis Singer so masterfully depicted. What I love about Streisand’s version is that whenever a character is lost for words, melodies take over so that the dialogue can go on. We adopted the same approach and added five new songs”, he explains. It’s impossible not to mention the story’s controversial aspect, and the discussion it generates around Orthodox Jewish society and its portrayal in works of fiction “It’s fascinating to me that after all these years, this little story about a rebellious Orthodox Jewish girl and the woman’s place in Hassidic society, continues to play the role of catalyst for a more general discussion on the treatment of women in the Western world”, says Kaptan, adding that “even though the play focuses on the woman’s

daughter who rebels against the religious establishment of the eastern European shtetl she was born in, is known everywhere in the world. Her father secretly instructs her in the Talmud despite the proscription, and after he dies, she decides to cut off her hair, disguise herself as a man and leave her home to go chase her dreams of knowledge and freedom. In the guise of a man, and calling herself “Anshel”, she joins a yeshiva in the small town of Bychawa. There, she falls in love with a fellow student, Avigdor. Trouble starts when it is arranged for her to be married to Hadassah. A destructive love triangle takes shape and snowballs into a predictably sticky denouement. “I don’t see Yentl as a musical, but rather as a play with songs”, says Kaptan, who directed numerous

Photos: Maayan Kaufman

24 ATMOSPHERE AUGUST 2022