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Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
P aula Vogel’s 2015 play
“Indecent” is both retrospec-
tive and prescient.

The Tony Award-winning show
explores the real-life controversy
that followed the early 20th century
Yiddish play “God of Vengeance” by
Sholem Asch, which features what is
considered the fi rst kiss between two
women in a play — one of whom is a
sex worker.

While “God of Vengeance” intro-
duces and grapples with subversive
themes in Judaism, “Indecent” deals
with the show’s impact on European
and American Jewry in a time of
growing antisemitism and censorship
that foreshadowed the Holocaust.

In 2023, another period of heighten-
ing antisemitism and discourse over
censorship, the 2015 play takes on
additional weight. The Players Club of
Swarthmore, which opened its 2023
season with “Indecent” on Jan. 6, is
aware of its responsibility of produc-
ing the show. “Indecent” runs through
Jan. 21.

“It’s almost diffi cult to think of
something happening today that this
show does not speak to in some way,”
said actor Sofi e Rose Seymour, who
is Jewish.

Seymour plays Chana Mendelbaum
among other characters in “Indecent,”
and their involvement in the play
speaks to their queer and Jewish
identities. Actor Eric Rupp in Players Club of Swarthmore’s production of “Indecent”
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Courtesy of Player’s Club of Swarthmore
Players Club’s ‘Indecent’ ‘Wrestles’ with
Judaism, Queerness, Censorship