Photo Flash: First Look at GOD OF VENGEANCE at Head Trick Theatre

In a house built over a brothel, Yekel and Sarah struggle for a place in legitimate Jewish society as a pimp and a former prostitute. Everything hinges on marrying off their daughter Rifkele, but Rifkele's secret relationship with Manke, one of the women of the brothel, threatens their carefully laid plans. In Sholem Asch's God of Vengeance, the boundary between the seedy underworld and the respectable world dissolves: when both are built on the sale of female bodies, which is the family home and which the brothel?

God of Vengeance - recently brought back into the spotlight by Best Play Tony nominee Indecent - caused a stir in 1923, when Broadway's first lesbian kiss got the cast and producers convicted of obscenity. The play grapples with intra-minority conflict and intersectional issues in ways that are still fresh today - yet its heart is a love story between two women that is timeless in its beauty. Head Trick will hold post-show talkbacks with special guests from Jewish, feminist, and LGBT organizations.

God of Vengeance continues Head Trick's 2017-18 season, which responds to the political climate not with stories of government tyranny or business corruption, but with plays by, and about, the people marginalized by policies and rhetoric that repress difference. "Women and minorities aren't a modern invention", says Head Trick's artistic director Rebecca Maxfield, whose company focuses on classic plays. "We've always been here, and in planning a season with the political situation at the forefront of our minds, Head Trick is choosing to put those voices and stories out there."

Head Trick Theatre is a performing group based in Providence, RI that puts on innovative productions of classic plays with a focus on the importance of liveness. Previous works in residence at AS220 include Gabriel, George Sand's feminist parable performed by a cast of female and non-binary actors, She Would If She Could, an exploration of human nature and performance in Restoration London, and The Cradle Will Rock, an ensemble-centric production of Marc Blitzstein's legendary, ever-timely agitprop musical. http://www.headtricktheatre.org

Photo Credit: Liz Oakley