Yentl at the Sydney Opera House: Australian production explores gender expression and identity

Gary Abrahams, director of Yentl, is well aware that most people’s first – and perhaps only – encounter with the story of Isaac Bashevis Singer is not the words of the writer, but the film of Barbra Streisand.

In Streisand’s 1983 film, she played Yentl, a Yiddish woman who disguises herself as a man in order to enroll in a yeshiva, a religious school, and devote herself to studying the texts of Judaism.

As Anschl, who is adopted by Yentl, the character then meets a young man named Avigdor and his ex-fiancée Hodes, and ends up in a love triangle of sorts.

“When we went back to the original story and read it in Yiddish and (Singer’s) own English translation, I was amazed at how much more interesting and complex the original story was. I actually felt like Streisand was pretty sanitized,” Abrahams told The Nightly.

Yentl opened at the Sydney Opera House last weekend after two successful performances in Melbourne. While Streisand’s version had a clear feminist bent, Abrahams’ Yentl is a much more interesting exploration of gender identity and agency.

This iteration is less about duality and more about fusion. Think of it as Yentl-Anshl, not Yentl/Anshl. The drama often digs into religious texts to question whether man and woman coexist as one rather than as opposing forces.

“Anshl was based on Singer’s sister, not officially, but she was desperate to learn,” Abrahams explained.

“She was very uncomfortable being a woman. When you read about things like this, it’s very clear that she’s probably dealing with trans things from a different angle, and I think those themes are inherent in her work.

“I don’t think you can read (Singer’s) work now with a modern understanding of identity and not feel like it’s very, very relevant.”

Abrahams likened the adaptation process to archaeology, and to how he and co-authors Elisa Esther Hirst and Galit Klas unearthed the original Yiddish story and discovered these complex spiritual arguments that are in dialogue with contemporary conversations about gender.

Actress Amy Hack joined the Yentl production for its Melbourne season earlier this year. She said this version approaches it through the lens of gender expression.

“What Yentl does throughout this journey is very transgressive,” she said. “Some may say it is bad, depraved or evil, because if you are a religious and observant person, how can you justify following such strong impulses to learn that are contrary to commitment to God and sacred texts that tell you not to do it?” this.

“But they also say that you are made in the image of God.”

In Singer’s story, which is in the play, there is a line where Yentl’s father tells her that she has the soul of a man and even heaven makes mistakes. Hak was moved by the meaning of these words and decided to address Yentl using they/them pronouns.

“It’s kind of a choose-your-own adventure, and my adventure is that Yentl is non-binary,” she said.

“You can see why (being a male soul) resonates with today’s more fluid understanding of gender. So, this is how I prefer to address them. But some people, like Barbra Streisand, may see them as a woman who is simply trying to achieve equality in a patriarchal society.”

Abrahams said that because many people in LGBT communities had a tense relationship with religion, sometimes their experiences were separated from more spiritual discourse.

“But I think we all have our own very personal relationship with spirituality,” he said. “A lot of queer people have had to struggle on a very personal level: ‘If the universe made me the way I am, how can it be wrong, how can it be unnatural?’

“I know it sounds corny, but I really think this show is in the world of spiritual discourse.”

He said that during its first two seasons, the production received feedback from a wide range of people of different backgrounds and religions and that it appealed to them regardless of their cultural background.

The show, like its protagonist, is meant to be a unifying force.

Abrahams was adamant that Yentl had no political background, although he knew some viewers felt that even coming on the show was a statement in the current climate.

Instead, the show is intended to be a work of art divorced from the current geopolitical conflict in the Middle East.

Yiddish is a 600-year-old language with a history dating back to the late 19th century, he said. There is no mention of Israel or any other country for that matter.

“People have a hard time separating political discourse from anything related to Jewish culture and Jewish issues. We’ve had some difficulties, some nasty comments about our advertising and all that, but I really feel like this show brings communities together,” he said.

“One of the great things when we’ve done this in the past is that you have an audience of Orthodox Jews, liberal Jews, drag queens, transgender people, queer people and people from all over the world. Putting it all together now feels very positive.”

Yentl performs at the Sydney Opera House until November 10.