Yentl

Dramatization of “Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy,” by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902-1991); originally published in Yiddish c. 1960, then in English c. 1983. The story: In an Ashkenazic shtetl in Poland, Yentl Mendel is the boyishly klutzy daughter and only child of long widowed Rebbe (“Talmud Teacher”) Mendel, who teaches Talmud (a codification of Jewish Law) to local boys – and to Yentl, but secretly because girls were not allowed to learn the law in those days. When her father dies, Yentl is all alone in the world. She takes the momentous decision to leave the village and – disguised as a boy and calling herself by the name of her late brother, Anshel – seeks and gets admitted to a Yeshiva, to study the texts, traditions, subtleties and complexities of Torah, Talmud, etc. She befriends Avigdor who is engaged to Haddas, but her family discovers his brother committed suicide so they call off the wedding (in case Avigdor possesses the same madness). Anshel then finds “him”-self in the awkward …

• Allan Corduner
• Amy Irving
• Anna Tzelniker
• Barbra Streisand
• Bernard Spear
• David de Keyser
• Doreen Mantle
• Jack Lynn
• Lynda Baron
• Mandy Patinkin
• Mary Henry
• Miriam Margolyes
• Nehemiah Persoff
• Ruth Goring
• Steven Hill