INDECENT


It would be great if “Indecent” could have a longer or a new run, for this is a profound play that bears more viewing. (It was extended to a closing date of June 19, 2016 in its run at the Vineyard Theatre.) The drama, imaginatively written by Paula Vogel and created by Vogel and director Rebecca Taichman, explores the emergence and fate of a famous play by Jewish writer Sholem Asch--“God of Vengeance.” “Indecent” accomplishes the weaving of this saga into the fabric Jewish culture and history, including the onset of the Holocaust, all of this coupled with the daring subject matter of Asch’s play itself.

Before the play starts we see seven actors and three musicians seated against the back wall of the stage. Soon we meet them all, and they dance and play before us (choreography by David Dorfman), with streams of ash streaming from their garments, a harbinger of what’s to come.

In 1906 in Warsaw young Asch (Max Gordon Moore) is enthusiastically reading his play to his wife, Madje (Adina Verson). She is also enthusiastic and there is tenderness and sensuality between them. But when Asch presents the play to a group of theater professionals, he is greeted with outrage. Asch has dared to write about an owner of a brothel who uses his profits to buy a Torah for his daughter, whom he wants to marry off. But the daughter falls into a relationship with one of the prostitutes, and apart from a religious Jew running a brothel, the idea of women in love on stage is far ahead of its time. In subsequent scenes the women are played by Verson and Katrina Lenk (cast members handle multiple parts).

At the outset a supporter of Asch’s determination to see his play produced is a tailor named Lemml, warmly played by Richard Topol, who also is cast as the Stage Manager. We follow the play’s fortunes as it gets to be performed in Berlin. Eventually an English version of the play, originally in Yiddish, and performed through the years in many countries, reaches Broadway and in 1923 ignites a firestorm, as the cast and producer are arrested for obscenity, an arrest that actually occurred. (Convictions with fines and suspended sentences after a jury trial were eventually overturned in a landmark decision for theatrical freedom.)

The strength of the “Indecent” production lies in the broad staging strokes, infectious ambiance, the magnetism of the excellent cast and the shifting time frames. The elastic form enables much to be created emotionally as well as historically, and the scene in which actors trapped in the Holocaust are walking in a line toward their fate is shattering.

The production is offered with striking simplicity despite its range. On occasions when Yiddish is used there are subtitles projected at the foot of the stage. Throughout there is a haunting atmosphere into which we are drawn by the cumulative artistry and the high stakes of the content. At the Vineyard Theatre, 108 East 15th Street. Phone: 212-353-3366. Reviewed June 18, 2016.




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