Pepi (née Perel) Litman was born in the 1870s in what was then the Russian Empire’s most glamorous and lawless port. Odesa was a place where Italian opera houses sat across from Moldovan wine cellars, where Greek smugglers dined next to Hasidic merchants. It was a city of masks. So perhaps it was inevitable that it would produce a woman who made her living by removing one mask and putting on another.
That city is Odesa. And to understand Pepi Litman—the world’s first major female “male impersonator” in Jewish theater—you first have to understand that Odesa, in the late 19th century, was already the world’s most accomplished impersonator of a European capital. pepi litman male impersonator birthplace ukrainian city
Epilogue: In 2023, a small memorial plaque was proposed for the site of the former Yiddish theater on Pushkinska Street in Odesa. Among the names of playwrights and composers, one citizen suggested: “And to Pepi, who taught us that a woman in a suit is not a disguise, but a declaration of war.” The vote is still pending. Pepi (née Perel) Litman was born in the
Pepi’s most famous bit was a mirror scene. She would appear as a bashful young maiden, be courted by a male actor, then flee backstage. Seconds later, “he” would emerge—the same face, now in a waistcoat—and begin flirting with the same man’s wife. The audience would scream with the cognitive dissonance. One body, two genders, three corners of a love triangle. So perhaps it was inevitable that it would
In a culture that rigidly separated tznius (modesty) for women and koved (honor) for men, Pepi Litman was a live grenade. Yet she was beloved. Because she never mocked men. She celebrated them, and in doing so, celebrated the woman who could imagine being one.
In the collective memory of Yiddish theater, the name Pepi Litman is a ghost wrapped in a tuxedo. She is a footnote in a footnote: a woman famous for pretending to be a man, born in a city famous for pretending to be many things.