Indecent by Pulitzer-winning playwright Paula Vogel tells the story of Sholem Asch’s controversial play, The God of Vengeance, and the passionate artists who risked everything to bring it to the stage. A small theatre company tells the story of the play from its inception in Poland in 1907. The story—about the daughter of a brothel owner who falls in love with one of her father’s prostitutes—was polarizing even at its first readings, with many of Asch’s fellows arising him to burn it. Nevertheless, it achieved great success on the stages of Europe and in the Yiddish theatre scene of downtown New York City. But when an English-translation was attempted on Broadway, the play—featuring the first kiss between women on a Broadway stage—proved too scandalous for the general public, and the entire cast was arrested and charged with obscenity. Vogel’s Indecent resurrects Sholem Asch’s great play, and celebrates the love, magic, and hope of the theatre even in the face of the greatest adversities.
Indecent guide sections
