People, especially oppressed people, need martyrs. And Jews, although now considered part of the white establishment by some, have been oppressed for centuries. They have found their martyr in Hannah Senesh. She was a Hungarian poet and playwright, one of 37 Jewish volunteers from the Palestine Mandate who were trained by the British during World War II and parachuted behind enemy lines to rescue other Jews. The mission failed, but the legend lives on.

This season, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene is presenting Hannah Senesh, a play based on Senesh’s diaries and poems, with music composed and arranged by Stephen Lutvak and additional songs by Elizabeth Swados and David Schechter. Written and directed by Schechter, the play features Jennifer Apple as both Hannah and her mother, Catherine.

Hannah Senesh was originally developed in collaboration with Lori Wilner, the actress who first played Hannah onstage in 1984. Wilner received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Solo Performance, but the play did not receive enough attention to make Senesh’s story well known to most people outside the Jewish community. Folksbiene hopes to change that.

The heart of the drama, sandwiched between Catherine’s salutatory and valedictory speeches, is Hannah telling her own story, from childhood through her premature death, including her Zionism, her move to Israel, her mission and her capture. Mixed in with the story is a good deal of poetry and music. Unfortunately, there is little drama.

Hannah never seems to have second thoughts. She acts impulsively but never struggles. At one point she does talk about her lack of relationships with young men, but that tantalizing subject is quickly dropped. In fact, there is little to distinguish Hannah from any of the other European youngsters, filled with idealism and hope, who went to Eretz Israel to become farmers. The most dramatic parts of the play, Hannah’s capture and torture, are not shown but narrated by her mother.

Both the lighting and set design help the show enormously, often overshadowing the acting and dialogue. Lighting designer Vivien Leone does an excellent job setting the mood, and scenic designer Court Watson has created a set vaguely reminiscent of the hills of Jerusalem.

It is possible that with better direction (possibly not by the author’s) and an actress who can deliver something more than Apple’s adequate performance, Hannah Senesh might be more compelling, but that would be a play telling a different story. One that dealt not in Hannah’s martyrdom but in the cynicism of the British, who were willing to sacrifice a bunch of Jews to an impossible and futile mission.

photos by Tricia Baron

Hannah Senesh
National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene
Theater Row, Theater Three, 410 West 42 St.
90 minutes, no intermission
ends on November 9, 2025
for tickets, visit NYTF