[NEohioPAL] Berko review: YENTL @ Cleveland Play House

[Roy Berko]

*•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••YENTL disappoints at
Cleveland Play House *

Roy Berko
(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)

“YENTL,” the play now in production at the Cleveland Play House, is based
on Isaac Bashevis Singer’s short story, “YENTL, THE YESHIVA BOY.”

The play had a short Broadway run in 1975, but the story is best known to
the general public because of the film version, which was written, produced
and directed by and starred Barbara Streisand.

The tale centers on Yentl, a girl whose father, a learned Orthodox Rabbi,
defies religious custom and teaches his daughter to read and debate Jewish
law and theology.  When he dies, she is at a loss as to how to continue to
learn, to achieve.  She cuts off her hair, dresses as a young man, enters a
“yeshiva” (a religious training school), and lives as a man.

Her unusual friendship with Avigdor, her study partner, and marriage to
Hadass, Avigdor’s former fiancé, sets the story on a track of intrigue.

To truly understand “YENTL,” requires a knowledge of Orthodox Judaism as
practiced in the shetls (villages) of pre-World War II eastern Europe, as
well as Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Orthodox Judaism centers on the belief in one, all knowing God, and
adherence to a strict interpretation and application of the laws and ethics
of the Torah.  The belief system in Eastern Europe, before the Holocaust,
intertwined religious laws with traditions, mysticism and superstitions.
These beliefs carried over into patterns of daily life and influenced such
things as the foods eaten, the patterns for birth and marriage and death,
the clothing worn, and the role of males and females.

Singer lived for much of his formative years in a Polish/Russian shtetl,
and was well trained in all aspects of Orthodox Judaism.

The winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, Singer, like his greatest
literary influences, Chekhov and Maupassant, is a realist and writer of
personal morality.  He is noted for his stark depictions of innocence
crushed by circumstance. His characters often are traumatized, desperate
and caught up in intra-familial strife.  His writing often depicts Jews
having personal religious conflicts.

His modern thoughts led to his writing about what he referred to as “female
homosexuality” and “transvestism.”  He considered the latter to be one of
the driving forces in, “YENTL THE YESHIVA BOY.” Yentl’s assertions that she
is “neither one sex nor another” and “has the soul of a man in the body of
woman” leads to the assumption that she could well have transgendered
tendencies.  In addition, Yentl’s true love for both Avigdor and Hadass,
and their returning of that love, blurs the lines between love of women for
women, women for men and men for men.

In contrast to Sholem Aleichem, Singer’s rival for being the voice of the
now gone life pattern of the Eastern European Jewish people, Singer was
serious in his writing, seldom using, as Sholem Aleichem did, humor and
playful irony to gain his point.

It is the consideration of this last issue, that leads to awareness of one
of the weaknesses of the Cleveland Play House production.  Director Michael
Perlman shows a carefree hand in developing the script.   From the onset,
there seems to be a desire to lighten up the proceedings. The cast mingles
with the audience before the production starts, joking, interacting.  They
are in costume, but ignore Jewish tradition of men not touching or hugging
women, setting a confusing tone.  The before curtain remarks are done
jokingly in Yiddish and English. The idea is clever, but doesn’t set the
right tone for this script. YENTL is not a comedy.  If taken as such, much
of the intended meaning disappears.

On the positive side, Therese Anderger as Hadass, Ben Melh as Avigdor and
Rebecca Gibel, as Yentl are all excellent.   They develop clear
characterizations.  Dorothy Silver adds the  proper tone as Yachna.
(BTW...for the uninitiated, Yachna, and the other women sometimes spit
three times through forked fingers when they are discussing a positive
action, such as a marriage or a birth.  This is an old superstitious action
to ward off the “meesa meshina,” the evil spirit.)

But, production questions abound.

Depending on which area a person comes from, pronunciations differ. But the
Hebrew pronunciations should have been uniform to represent that these
people are from the same place.  Why the great variance of Hebraic sounds?

Most of the cast speaks in standard English, representing commonality of
language, but one cast member uses an indefinable accent and overplays his
part for laughs.  Why?

A general air of superficiality invades the production.  Why?  Unless done
with reality, the play loses its “tam” (Yiddish for taste), fringes on
mockery of the way of life being depicted, and weakens the accomplishment
of the author’s purpose.

Robin Vest’s scenic design, risers to depict multi-settings, with its
symbolic “chuppah (a canopy, in this case covering the home of action for
the play) generally works, but the set for the important “mikvah” (ritual
bath) scene lacks clarity and realism.

Potential audience members should be aware that there is both male and
female nudity in the production.

*CAPSULE JUDGMENT:  The opening night audience for YENTL failed to give the
standard Cleveland standing ovation.  This might be construed as an omen
that there was a disconnect between the viewers and the production.  It’s
too bad. YENTL is an important script, which tells a fascinating story of a
writer, ahead of his time, who weaves Jewish history with modern issues.  I
wanted so much to really be swept away by the production. Unfortunately,
that wasn’t the case.*

YENTL runs through February 2, 2014 at the Allen Theatre in
PlayhouseSquare.  For tickets call 216-241-6000 or go to
http://www.clevelandplayhouse.com.

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