‘Indecent’ at Nashville Repertory Theatre

Jewish people, lesbians, and sex workers — oh my!

In 2015, Paula Vogel’s “Indecent” premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre. It took a relatively familiar format to the audience — the play within a play. “God of Vengeance” was a play from the 1920s, written by Polish-Jewish author and playwright Sholem Asch. The story centered on a respectable Jewish family who lives above a brothel. When their young daughter falls in love with one of the sex workers downstairs, chaos ensues. A play like this wouldn’t be controversial in the 2020s, but with the rise of antisemitic violence in Poland, Europe and the world at the time, Sholem Asch’s contemporaries were concerned about what a play like this would say about the Jewish people.

Exploring censorship, sex work, relationships, antisemitism, and more, “Indecent’s” telling of the production became a force to be reckoned with by the time it made it to Broadway in 2017. Seven years later, Nashville’s premiere regional theater, Nashville Rep is mounting the production.

This episode was produced by Elizabeth Burton. Special thanks to Amos Glass and LaTonya Turner. 

Guests: 

• Paula Vogel, playwright
• Micah-Shane Brewer, Artistic Director at Nashville Repertory Theatre
• Sarah Aili, actor