The Story Behind the Story – God of Vengeance
Warsaw, Poland, the birthplace of God of Vengeance, was hailed during the early twentieth century as a cultural center for Judaism, with about 30% of the city’s population consisting of Jewish residents. Many of those Jewish residents had come to Warsaw beginning in the 1880s from Russia, fearing pogroms (the Russian massacre of the Jewish people). Those Jews from Russia largely did not speak Polish, opting for Yiddish as their language of choice in day to day life. This, alongside Russian customs brought with them, created a distinctly Jewish culture in Warsaw that largely avoided assimilation with the non-Jews of the city.
One part of this Jewish cultural boom in Warsaw was the growth of Yiddish theatre. In Russia, plays in Yiddish had been prohibited, and theatrical productions there often attempted to disguise their plays as German or produce them in secret. In Warsaw, Yiddish productions were permitted, leading to massively successful plays as early as 1886, when Goldfaden’s troupe put on Shulamis for over 150 showings. In the early twentieth century, as censorship in Warsaw was further lessened, Yiddish artistry and the Yiddish play became staples of Warsaw’s Jewish culture.
Sholem Asch, the Polish-born, Jewish playwright of God of Vengeance, came to Warsaw in 1899. Asch was educated in both Hebrew-based religious schooling, as well as a more secular Yiddish-based education. Although his original debuts as both a playwright and novelist were written in Hebrew, he quickly switched to writing in Yiddish. Asch largely wrote about the shtetl life he had grown up in, referring to the small Jewish towns of eastern Europe. God of Vengeance, written in winter of 1906, is set in such a shtetl, and depicts a way of life authentic to Asch’s upbringing.
What the Play Tells Us – and What it Doesn’t
From this point forward, most of God of Vengeance’s story, from its initial reception to Asch’s condemnation of it, is told through Indecent. However, being a 94 minute play, Indecent can’t cover everything. Here’s a timeline of events, both those covered by Indecent and those happening in the background:
- 1906: Asch writes Got fun nekome (God of Vengeance)
- 1907: Asch reads the play for Yiddish literary giant, I.L. Perez, who takes issue with the play’s perceived negative portrayal of Jewish and advises Asch to “burn it”
- 1907: Got fun nekome opens in Warsaw
- 1910: Got fun nekome opens in Berlin, produced by Max Reinhardt
- 1910: Asch visits the United States for the first time
- 1914: Asch returns to the United States
- Early 1920s: Broadway communities begin to push back against depictions of “lewdness”
- 1921: The Emergency Quota Act is passed by the United States, severely limiting immigration from eastern Europe.
- 1922: A production of the English translation of God of Vengeance by Isaac Goldberg opens at the Provincetown Playhouse in New York City, before transferring to Greenwich Village Theatre
- February 19, 1923: God of Vengeance opens at the Apollo Theater on Broadway. The kiss scene is cut, which alters the relationship between Manke and Rifkele from one of queer love to one of manipulation
- March 6, 1923: During a performance, the cast and producer, Harry Weinberger, are informed by a police detective that they have been indicted for the obscene nature of the show
- March 7, 1923: The entire company posts bail and are able to hold their matinee performance
- May 23, 1923: The entire company and team are tried and found guilty
- June 13, 1924: Roger Baldwin, founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, declines to help Weinberger finance an appeal
- 1924: The National Origins Act and the Asian Exclusion Act further restrict immigration. The Society for Human Rights, the first queer advocacy organization in the United States, is shut down by police pressure
- April 1926: Weinberger and the cast win their appeal and overturn the verdict
- 1926: The Wales Padlock Law is passed in New York, prohibiting plays “dealing with the subject of sex degeneracy or perversion”
- Early 1940s: Got fun nekome is performed in the Łodz Ghetto
- 1942 – Sholem Asch forbids production of Got fun nekome in response to Nazi officials beginning genocide against the Jewish people
- 1943: Sholem Asch is nominated for the Nobel Prize, the first Yiddish writer to receive this nomination
Indecent: Why Now?
When Paula Vogel, a twenty-two year old graduate student at Cornell University, was recommended God of Vengeance by her professor in 1973, she was instantly fascinated by it. In 1997, a young Rebecca Taichman at the Yale School of Drama found God of Vengeance and went on to write her thesis on the ensuing trial. In 2010, Taichman approached Vogel about a collaboration between them based on the obscenity trial. Thus, Indecent was born.
Indecent put on an experimental production at Sundance Institute’s Theatre Lab, with intent to workshop the production. The world premiere of Indecent began in 2015 at the Yale Repertory Theatre, then transferred to the La Jolla Playhouse. Indecent’s Off-Broadway production opened on May 16, 2016 at the Vineyard Theatre. Finally, on April 18, 2017, Indecent opened on Broadway at the Cort Theatre (94 years after God of Vengeance’s Broadway premiere).
Why Indecent, a story about an early twentieth century Yiddish play and its subsequent censorship, in 2017? An article from Public Broadcasting Service, written during the time of Indecent’s premiere, attributes its modern relevance to the #ArtMatters and the #LoveisLoveisLove movements that were prominent around the play’s debut. #ArtMatters focused on showcasing and uplifting the works of artists from a variety of backgrounds, while #LoveisLoveisLove was a slogan for the queer rights movement originating from prominent director, actor, and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award acceptance speech advocating for LGBTQA+ rights. Both the topics of artistic censorship and queer censorship feature heavily in Indecent, and as producer Daryl Roth put it, “It’s exactly why it’s such a pertinent play today because the subjects are subjects we’re dealing with as we speak around this table.”
Indecent made headlines again in early 2023 when Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville, Florida canceled their production of Indecent due to “a closer review of mature content.” This explanation seemed dubious, given the school’s productions of Chicago and RENT in 2022 and 2021 respectively. Students believed instead that the production was shut down due to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which was passed in July 2022. The idea of Indecent being shut down for being, well, indecent, proves a modern relevance of the play and its themes in a painfully ironic manner. Paula Vogel, in her response to the production’s cancellation, explicitly criticized Ron DeSantis, and praised the students speaking out against their school’s censorship. As of writing, issues of queer censorship are the constant subject of national news, and Indecent is a beautiful commentary on the state of the world.
