Indecent

Indecent, a one-act play by American playwright Paula Vogel, tells the true story of Polish writer Sholem Asch’s controversial 1906 play, The God of Vengeance. It premiered Off-Broadway in 2015 before opening on Broadway in 2017. The play was nominated for three Tony awards, of which it won two: Best Direction of a Play and Best Lighting Design of a Play. The Broadway production was professionally filmed and released by PBS in late 2017. There have been several other productions of Indecent, including a 2018 version in Tel Aviv and a 2022 version in San Francisco.

Indecent was the first play on Broadway to feature a kiss between two women, and it was subsequently the focus of an obscenity trial. Vogel is a lesbian, and her father was Jewish. She connected with The God of Vengeance when she first read it and teamed up with director Rebecca Taichman to create a play about it, exploring 20th-century Jewish identity, the Yiddish language, and censorship.

This guide uses the 2017 Theatre Communications Group, Inc. e-book edition of the play.

Content Warning: This play discusses antisemitism, anti-gay bias, sexual violence, and the Holocaust. 

Plot Summary

A theater troupe enters, shaking dust out of their clothes. Lemml, the troupe’s stage manager, introduces all of the actors, who will each be playing multiple roles. There are three women and three men of varying ages in the troupe. Lemml also introduces the band members.

The scene shifts to 1906 in Warsaw. Sholem Asch, a young Polish-Jewish writer, shows his wife Madje the script for his debut play, The God of Vengeance, as the couple sits in bed. It is written in Yiddish. Madje loves the play. She is especially moved by the portrayal of love between two women, noting that some of their romantic lines are taken from conversations she has had with Sholem. 

Sholem attends a literary salon where he presents his play to Peretz, an influential playwright, and Nakhmen, a fellow writer. Nakhmen’s cousin Lemml, a tailor from a small town, joins the meeting. Sholem describes the plot of The God of Vengeance: A young Jewish woman, Rifkele, who is the daughter of impious brothel owner Yekel, falls in love with Manke, a sex worker. Sholem has all the men read the script, but they balk at reading the more overtly lesbian scenes. Peretz and Nakhmen also object to Sholem’s treatment of religion: At the end of the play, an enraged Yekel throws a Torah scroll to the ground. Peretz urges Sholem to burn the play, but Lemml is impressed by Sholem’s boldness. Sholem and Lemml take the play to Berlin, where many people are more politically radical and sexually liberated. 

The God of Vengeance begins production in Berlin. Rudolph Schildkraut, a famous actor, plays Yekel. The troupe performs the play many times, with a slight change to the ending: Yekel raises the Torah over his head, but he does not throw it to the ground. They perform across Europe throughout the 1910s. In 1920, Lemml comes to America, arriving at Ellis Island. He worries that he will be turned away, but Sholem helps him emigrate successfully. In 1921, a new troupe performs The God of Vengeance at a Yiddish theater in New York City. 

In 1922, the actresses who play Rifkele and Manke are fighting. The actresses are also a couple—Reina (who has Anglicized her name to Ruth) and Deine (who has Anglicized her name to Dorothee). They are trying to learn an English version of the play, but Reina is struggling because she does not speak English well and has a strong accent. Schildkraut enters with Lemml and informs Reina that he has had to replace her with an American actress. The new actress, Virginia McFadden, has no acting experience but hopes to shock her parents by playing a Jewish lesbian. The play opens in English, and it is a success. The show’s producer, Harry Weinberger, announces to the cast that the show is moving to Broadway. Dorothee enters, furious: The script has been edited for the Broadway launch, removing the romantic scene where Rifkele and Manke dance together in the rain. Though she is angry, she agrees to perform.

Sholem and Madje visit a doctor. Madje translates for Sholem, who speaks Yiddish but very little English. Sholem has recently visited Europe to learn about the impacts of pogroms in Jewish communities. He has been experiencing psychological distress since his return and has not attended any rehearsals for the show. Reluctantly, Sholem attends the play’s opening night on Broadway with Madje. They are unsettled to see police in the theater and shocked by the significant changes to the script. Virginia and Dorothee kiss on stage but do not perform the rain scene. After the play, police arrest all of the cast members on obscenity charges. Rabbi Joseph Silverman gives a sermon, accusing Sholem of antisemitism. The rabbi was the one who reported The God of Vengeance to the police, and he is pleased that the actors have been arrested. 

The cast is released from jail. Reina and Dorothee make up. Lemml meets playwright Eugene O’Neill in a bar. O’Neill wanted to testify to support the cast, but since he had seen the original version of the play, he was not permitted to testify. Madje tries to persuade Sholem to appear in court to defend his work, but he refuses. The judge finds the defendants guilty. Lemml confronts Sholem, who admits that he approved the changes to the Broadway script without noticing their extent, as he cannot read English. He also refused to testify because he was embarrassed by his inability to speak English. Lemml, frustrated by all that has happened, announces that he is returning to Europe. 

In 1939, in Europe, Nakhmen tries and fails to get a visa to escape Nazi-occupied Poland. Lemml’s new European troupe writes to Sholem to describe ever-worsening conditions leading up to the Holocaust. The troupe performs the show in a dusty attic in 1943 in the Łódź Ghetto. Just after the rain scene, the troupe gets arrested. Lemml and all of the actors are sent to a concentration camp. As he stands in a long line of people about to be killed, Lemml imagines the play’s protagonists Rifkele and Manke bursting out of the line and escaping.

In 1952, Sholem and Madje prepare to move to Europe—Sholem is fleeing McCarthy-era trials for his previous involvement with socialism. A young playwright, John Rosen, arrives with a new translation of The God of Vengeance. Sholem refuses to give his blessing, feeling that the world has changed too much for the play to still be relevant. Rosen insists that even if he has to wait years, he will one day produce the play. He leaves. Sholem sees the ghosts of Lemml and the actors. Rifkele and Manke dance in the rain, and Sholem and Lemml join them.