New Yiddish Rep Presents Reading of Banned Lesbian Romance, GOD OF VENGEANCE

The recently concluded Vineyard Theatre run of Paula Vogel and Rebecca Taichman's INDECENT introduced Off-Broadway playgoers to the long-forgotten story of how the 1923 Broadway production of Polish-Jewish playwright Sholem Asch's GOD OF VENGEANCE was closed by New York's vice squad because it dared to show audiences two women romantically kissing.

Vogel and Taichman's excellent play showed glimpses of Asch's drama, but this weekend audiences will be able to hear the full play as the New Yiddish Rep presents two readings of GOD OF VENGEANCE, Saturday June 25 and Sunday June 26 at 7 PM. There's an $18 suggested donation for the performances at the Theatre at The 14th Street Y, 244 E. 14th Street at First Avenue.

Under the direction of Eleanor Reissa, actors Shane Baker, Eleanor Reissa, Miryem-Khaye Siegel, Ben Rosenblatt, Caraid O'Brien and David Mandelbaum, the company's artistic director, will read the play in Yiddish, with English supertitles projected. Visit NewYiddishRep.org.

GOD OF VENGENCE was success throughout Europe in the early years of the 20th Century, but when a New York production moved from Macdougal Street's Provincetown Playhouse to 42nd Street's Apollo Theatre - even with revisions to appease any potential controversy - the play was raided and the producers and cast, which included Morris Carnovsky and Sam Jaffe, were convicted on morality charges.

Though the play is about a Jewish brothel owner, the scandal was not about sex, but about the expression of love between the owner's daughter and a prostitute. Siegel (pictured, left) will play the daughter in the New Yiddish Rep's reading with O'Brien (right) playing the prostitute.

"At the end of the first act, they have a passionate embrace and kiss," Mandelbaum, tells the New York Post. "What can I say? It's hot."

Rabbi Joseph Silverman of Temple Emanu-El was an outspoken opponent of the play when it premiered in New York. "The establishment Jewish community was outraged," says Mandelbaum. "This was driven by the usual fear: 'Is it going to be bad for the Jews?'"

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