“We have a story we want to tell you. A story about a play. A play that changed my life” was the opening line of Indecent, which premiered on Broadway at the Cort Theater on April 18, 2017. Created by Paula Vogel and Rebecca Taichman, Indecent tells the story of Sholem Asch’s early 20th-century Yiddish play, God of Vengeance.  

The inclusion of a lesbian love story and the desecration of a Torah scroll in God of Vengeance shocked audiences, particularly spurring concern among Jewish communities, who feared that the play would exacerbate antisemitic sentiment. In 1923, the producer and thirteen members of the cast were found “guilty of presenting an immoral performance” and the play was shut down.  

In an interview, Vogel said, “[T]he plays that I admire, and the playwrights that I admire, are not shying away from the complexity of racism, bias, sexism, and the things that hurt us.” It was Asch’s courage to tell this story that so greatly inspired her when she first read God of Vengeance as an aspiring playwright. When she was asked by a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Rebecca Taichman, to be involved in her production, which interlaced the script of God of Vengeance with the 1923 obscenity trial, Vogel knew she had to be involved.  

Vogel worked with Taichman to return the play to the Broadway spotlight with the creation of Indecent. Through emotional music and artful projections, Indecent traces the story of God of Vengeance from its birth in Warsaw to the Second World War when it was performed in the Lodz ghetto, focusing on the growth and evolution of Asch from his youth to old age. According to Vogel, Indecent asks “How do you write in a hideous time? How do you stay true to yourself? What happens if you censor the work that is telling the truth?”  

Indecent, a production about the dangers of censorship, was, ironically, canceled by a Florida high school for its “sexual themes” in 2023—exactly 100 years after the God of Vengeance cast was arrested for obscenity. Still, a century later, the arts remain a threat to the forces seeking to impose homogeneity by silencing honest expression. Productions like Indecent combat these forces by telling the stories of the silenced, including Jews and the LGBTQ community, who deserve to have their voices heard by roaring audiences, and the world.    

Sources 

Brantley, Ben. “Review: ‘Indecent’ Pays Heartfelt Tribute to a Stage Scandal.’” Newyorktimes.com, April 18, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/18/theater/indecent-review-paula-vogel-…;

Collins-Hughes, Laura. “With ‘Indecent,’ Paula Vogel Makes her Broadway Debut.” Newyorktimes.com, April 12, 2017.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/theater/with-indecent-paula-vogel-ma…;

Cummings, Mike. “Defending an ‘Indecent’ play: ‘The God of Vengeance’ in the Yale University Library archives.” News.yale.edu, October 15, 2015. https://news.yale.edu/2015/10/15/defending-indecent-play-god-vengeance-…;

“‘God of Vengeance Players Convicted,” The New York Times 72, no. 23861. May 24, 1923, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1923/05/24/issue.html. &n…;

Tolin, Lisa. “Paula Vogel on the Cancellation of ‘Indecent.’” Pen.org, https://pen.org/paula-vogel-indecent/.  

Weiner, Miriam. “An Interview with the Playwright: Paula Vogel on Indecent.” Vinyardtheatre.org,  

https://vineyardtheatre.org/archive/interview-playwright-paula-vogel-in…;