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REVIEW | Faygele, Marylebone Theatre - London
- Harry Brogan
- May 7
- 3 min read
AD | Ticket gifted in exchange of an honest review
CW: Strong language, death, homophobic slurs, mention of suicide, haze and strobe light,
Faygele, is a poignant journey of young man whose homosexuality Is unaccepted by his Orthodox Jewish family. Faygele is written by Shimmy Braun who wanted to share his story via this play. We follow the journey of Ari, played by Ilan Galkoff, a teenager that is persecuted by his own family and cultural background because of his sexual orientation. The timeline of the play takes the audience through the grief of his family after the young boy died, and through his struggle before he died. Struggle made of doubts, love, discoveries, arguments with his dad Dr. Freed (played by Ben Caplan), the paradoxical complicity with his mum Mrs. Freed (played by Clara Francis), his support from Rabbi Lev (played by Andrew Paul), and his heart twisted by Sammy Stein (played by Yiftach Mizrahi), one of his first lovers.
Ari, played by Ilan Galkoff, is the only character that interacts with us, he is the storyteller and the anchor of all the character’s connections. The performer has a great aura on stage and can make you think of Timothée Chalamet in Call me By Your Name, with his stage presence and physicality. The parents of Ari are the traditional Jewish couple, the dad can not accept that his son is a “Faygele”, because “we are men” as he says to his son. We then learn that the dad had a difficult childhood that he obviously did not heal from, which makes him a very rigid character. Ben Caplan plays the dad well, as the dad is someone that never breaks down but in anger. Clara Francis, playing the mum, embodies the only female figure of the play with a softness and stillness that is incredible. She is one of the anchors of the story as well, all of the characters are conflicted but she is the most as she is a mum, and mothers have a different bond to their kids, she is supporting Ari but also has to deal with her husband and her other ten children.
Rabbi Lev, played by Andrew Paul, is the friend of the family that will try and compromise for Ari, to help him, understand him. His character gives a comedic tone to this tragedy, as Rabbi Lev is the one who lights up the atmosphere. Paul has this weight on stage and paces the story. Sammy, played by Yiftach Mizrahi is also very conflicted as his relationship with Ari is impossible and forbidden even because of the age gap. You can see the unease of the character having this attraction, where deeply he wants to help the teenager.
The play is very rich because of its performers, writing (by Shimmy Braun), set and costumes (by David Shields). Direction, by Hannah Chissick, are interesting as we are always travelling back and forth in the story timeline, having a lot of asides. The transitions could be more flowing as the performers have to move a lot of the set to serve the story and all is well thought out but some of them could be simplified to let the performers inhabit their characters all along.
Last but not least, Faygele is a strong piece that moves you. Even for an audience members that can not relate to Ari's experience, his relationship with parents, family friends and love. The relation of a human towards death are themes that can bring a large community around the piece.
★★★★
Faygele is currently playing at Marylebone Theatre London until 31st May 2025!
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