Heartfelt: Faygele [Jane Hobson]

IN Yiddish, “faygele” is a derogatory name for a gay or effeminate male, akin to “faggot”.

Shimmy Braun’s debut play explores the marginalisation of a teenager Ari Freed (Ilan Galkoff) in an Orthodox Jewish community because he is queer.

Inspired by a real-life tragedy, we first meet Ari at his own funeral. Ari haunts the play as he retraces the events and circumstances that led him to take his own life.

At 13, Ari’s world is turned upside down at his Bar Mitzvah celebration, when his father (Ben Caplan) calls him a faygele.

His mother (Clara Francis), has another 10 children to look after, and seems incapable, or unwilling, to help Ari and challenge her husband.

The local rabbi (Andrew Paul) is sympathetic to the point that he offers Ari a temporary refuge.

Ari is also befriended by Sammy (Yiftach Mizrahi), an older gay man within the community, but both fail to help Ari through the difficult transition into adulthood

Imaginatively staged by Hannah Chissick, Faygele is heartfelt and well-acted. But Braun occasionally rams his message home. In his passionate desire to dictate our emotional response to Ari’s alienation, he denies us the pleasure of drawing our own conclusions.

Until May 31
marylebonetheatre.com