44 | APRIL 20 • 2023 

P

opularity is no guarantee 
against censure. A play can 
attract enthusiastic audiences 
but still be condemned for how it 
depicts same-sex relations, 
say, or allegedly harms 
a marginalized group. 
And outrage sometimes 
leads to canceling, not 
just of performances, but 
of sponsors and artistic 
creators. Sometimes the 
actors are even hauled off 
to jail.
Until that last sentence you probably 
anticipated a reflection on what is today 

often termed our “cancel culture.” In 
fact, the scenario I posed transpired 
exactly 100 years ago, when the cast 
and producer of Sholem Asch’s The 
God of Vengeance were arrested after 
a Broadway performance on the 
night of March 6, 1923. Originally 
written in Yiddish and staged to great 
acclaim across Europe, the translated 
play had been successfully offered to 
the Greenwich Village crowd at the 
Provincetown Theatre. But the move 
uptown put a bright target on Asch’s 
three-act drama.
This act of censorship in 1923 is at 
the heart of Paula Vogel’s 2017 play 

Indecent, an amazing meditation not 
only on Asch and the fate of his work, 
but on the power of theater, the glory 
that once was Yiddish language and 
culture, and the capacity for love even 
amidst the most degrading and difficult 
circumstances. The performances this 
month by Jewish Theatre Grand Rapids 
are not to be missed, as Indecent is the 
kind of drama that proves how essential 
it is to be among others when watching 
such art unfold. Combing elements of 
music, drama and dance, Indecent may 
be Jewish Theatre’s most ambitious —
and anticipated — production.
It also seems to me the kind of 
play JTGR’s founders of 35 years ago 
would have hoped to bring before west 
Michigan audiences. 

THE DRAMATIZATION OF VICE
So, what provoked the New York vice 
squad to appear at the theater and 
determine that the performance had 
broken the law? On the surface, the 

ARTS&LIFE
THEATER

Paula Vogel’s 2017 play Indecent to be 
performed by Jewish Theatre Grand Rapids.

 Sex, Love 
and Yiddishkeit

Rob 
Franciosi
Special to the 
Jewish News

Yale Repertory 
Production 
2015