Pulitzer Prize Winning Playwirght Paula Vogel's INDECENT at the Cort Theater

"Indecent" by Paula Vogel is a poetic production surrounding the blasphemous & litigous reactions Sholem Asch (b Poland 1880-1957) received for his play "God of Vengeance."  This play was first produced in 1907 in Europe and made its B'wy debut in 1923.  The show on B'wy lasted a few weeks before it was forced to close on charges of indecency.  In "God of Vengeance," a Jewish man runs a brothel of Jewish prostitutes.  He seeks to counter balance his immoral activity by commissioning a Torah and arranging a marriage for his daughter with a Yeshiva student.   His daughter falls in love with one of the prostitutes.  "Indecent" gives us a glimpse into Asch's life & marriage within its historic context.  It also portrays the luminescent, illicit lesbian affair onstage amidst a soft falling rain. The scene enraptures the love the women find for each other.  The original production met with condemnation from the Jewish community for desecrating the Torah & rousing anti-Semitism.   The play made its way to B'wy in 1923 but was forcibly closed for obscenity shortly after opening.  The brilliant staging of "Indecent" is lyrical & profound.  The actors play multiple roles fluidly.  The musicians & choreography add a mystical quality of timelessness.  Projections in English & Hebrew offer translations from the German & Yiddish spoken.  The projections also cover the actors given an added syntax of time passage. All the parts add up to a remarkable & unforgettable work of art. "A blink of an eye," is an oft seen projection.  The stage manager (Richard Topol) sets the play by telling us he remembers how the play begins but not how it ends.  As the actors line up to face us, fine grains of sand flow from their sleeves.  Ashes to ashes - dust to dust.  Asch and several of the actors return to Poland & Germany in the 1930's where productions of the play are staged with actors wearing the Yellow Stars of David on their clothes.  The ephemeral beauty of this brilliant staging is a rasping  juxtaposition of man's indecent inhumanity.