Farhad Or The Secret Of Being

“Arielle Jacobs closes out the evening in Farhad, a disturbing and intriguing portrait of a gender-identity crisis. Ms. Jacobs’s character is not a woman trapped in a man’s body, or vice versa. She is a girl whose parents have dressed her as a boy all her life — a common practice in modern-day Afghanistan, partly because families without sons are looked down upon — and who now has to switch to living as a girl because a marriage has been arranged for her. Ms. Jacobs makes this quandary palpable. Ms. Jacobs has a powerful voice, which becomes more passionate as she faces reality.”

“In Farhad or the Secret of Being, Jacobs ends the show on a heartbreaking note. She plays a young Middle Eastern girl who has been dressed up as a boy her whole life to avoid social exile, but now she must assume her womanhood to be married off to a man she does not love and wear a garment she does not want to wear. Jacobs’ songbirdlike ability permeates Nilo Cruz and Jim Bauer’s sweet score, while director Saheem Ali does tiny wonders with the small stage space used.”

“In Farhad or The Secret of Being, Arielle Jacobs, plays an Afghan girl who was raised as a boy reaches puberty and faces the abrupt changes of womanhood when she is plunged into an arranged marriage. She struggles to adapt to the difficult world women confront in this part of the world as she tries to find ways to surpass limitations and the bondage of her reality.”