FROM ELSTERNWICK TO THE OPERA HOUSE KADIMAH’S YENTL IS ON ITS WAY
AUSTRALIAN JEWISH NEWS 23 AUG 2024
Melbourne Kadimah’s Malthouse Season cast of Yentl will soon perform at the Sydney Opera House.
PHOTO: Jeff Busby
THE Sydney Opera House, widely regarded as one of the world’s most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architecture, is a long way from the Kadimah Jewish Cultural Centre & National Library on Selwyn Street, Elsternwick.
However, come October 17 Kadimah’s production of Yentl will be starting its season at the Opera House.
Commercial entertainment producers Anton Berezin and Neil Gooding were in the audience when Kadimah’s Yentl premiered in 2022.
They immediately identified the potential for the small show to have a longer life appealing to a much wider audience and approached the Kadimah with the idea of taking it to the Opera House.
Kadimah’s award-winning theatre director Gary Abraham said, “We know that Sydney has a robust Jewish community, and that Sydney Opera House is an incredibly prestigious venue, and we also know it is difficult to get work up there.
“For us at Kadimah with this small play we developed during COVID, that had its first reading in our small hall, to then be on at the Sydney Opera House is amazing.
“I think it may be the very first time that a Yiddish text performance is on at the Sydney Opera House”he added.
The play is bilingual. It was purposefully crafted so that parts are in Yiddish with English surtitles and the rest is in English.
Yentl was performed at Melbourne’s Arts Centre and the Malthouse Theatre to combined audiences in the vicinity of 8000 people. Abrahams anticipates the Opera House audiences will equal if not surpass that number.
“It is the original cast, our production that we are touring, we are not giving it to other creatives to interpret,” he said.
BOOKINGS: www.sydneyoperahouse.com/theatre/yentl
MORE INFORMATION: https://www.yentlkadimah.com.au/
