Theatre Reviews

Faygele
Marylebone Theatre
30th April to 31st May, 2025

David Shield’s set is stunning. Walking into the theatre and seeing the preset for the show feels like you’re entering a cathedral – not only because of the set on stage but also because the usual house lights aren’t turned on and the theatre itself is wooden clad. This perfectly sets the scene for the theatrical evening.

The Marylebone Theatre is relatively new on the London theatre scene. Very easy to get to from the West End at just a 2 minute walk from Baker Street. It’s had huge successes with shows such as The White Factory and A Sherlock Carol and also some mis-fires like a poet talking to a stone, and White Rose the Musical.

This production has a lot of heart and comes from the writer’s own experience of growing up as a gay, or “Faygele”, in the Jewish community.

We start at the funeral service for Ari who commited suicide aged 18. The following 90 mins is a series of flashbacks that bring us from the boy’s Bar Mitzvah aged 13 to the point where he’s rejected by friends, his rabbi and family.

Although set in modern times the story does feel a little updated. Hard to imagine that an advocate for the boy, and older man who became a friend, would throw the boy out for crossing boundaries rather than just set the boundaries while remaining an advocate.

The cast are terrific. Ilan Galkoff takes the lead role magnificently with very believable performances from the remainder of the cast.

Nic Farman chooses a cabaret style of lighting for the funeral which continues throughout the flashback scenes. The story within a story section changes the style to technicolour. Predominantly, shadowy faces are the order of the day. Unfortunately, I found the constant haze billowing from mid-stage left into the actors was quite obtrusive and disrupted the stillness of some of the scenes.

Hannah Chissick has directed the cast to be constantly moving the furniture around. This was way too much business. I found myself concerned for the mother having to stretch her arms wide to pickup the dining room table and wondering how heavy the bench was that was being carted around.

This powerful story should be a wake-up call especially in our troubled times when we are seeing increased support for bigoted governance and faith-led false justification for inhumanity.