Indecent

Chana is the youngest woman in the troupe. She plays Rifkele, as well as all of the different actresses who portray Rifkele over the years: Elsa Heimes, Reina, Virginia McFadden, and the actress playing Rifkele at the end of Indecent in the Łódź Ghetto. Each actress has a different relationship to the character of Rifkele. Elsa is similar to Rifkele because they are both Jewish and both have to contend with antisemitism. Reina desperately wants to play Rifkele in the English production in New York City because, like Rifkele, she is a Jewish lesbian. She wants to act alongside her real-life partner, but she cannot because her English is not good enough. Virginia is drawn to playing Rifkele to shock her parents, though she ends up discovering that she loves acting and might even have feelings for Dorothee.

Chana also portrays Madje Asch for most of the play. Madje loves The God of Vengeance and considers it, in part, her play, because her husband used their conversations as inspiration for the love story. Because Madje does not see the horrors that Sholem witnesses in Europe, she does not become fully disillusioned with The God of Vengeance and remains emphatic about its importance far longer than her husband does. Chana also plays a few minor roles, including one of the Bagelman sisters.

Avram is the youngest man in the troupe. In the Łódź Ghetto, he plays some of the female roles in The God of Vengeance. Avram also plays Sholem Asch for most of the play. Initially, Sholem is enthusiastic about the radical potential of his play. His wife’s support helps him feel that he has written something of value. He refuses to burn his script and insists on staging the show in Berlin with Lemml’s help. As Sholem ages, he becomes less idealistic. He visits Europe and witnesses the effects of pogroms, which fundamentally changes his relationship to his writing. He is no longer invested in The God of Vengeance, and he does not appear in court to defend it. His apathy toward his play is compounded by his inability to speak English fluently, which makes him reluctant to speak in court.

Avram also plays Eugene O’Neill, another playwright who greatly admires Sholem’s work. Although O’Neill cannot defend the cast in court after their arrest, he tells Lemml that he will always remember the impact the play had on him when he first saw it. Avram plays John Rosen at the very end of the play, a young Jewish man from a new generation who is more hopeful about the impact that theater can have on the world. He plays some minor roles in the ensemble.

Halina is a few years older than Chana. Like Chana with Rifkele, Halina also plays all of the different actresses who have portrayed Manke over the years. She plays Freida Niemann in Berlin, the first woman to play Manke on stage. Freida is German and is not Jewish; she thinks that playing a Jewish character is more scandalous and challenging than playing a lesbian or a sex worker. Freida holds antisemitic prejudices, including prejudice against the Yiddish language. Nevertheless, she is a well-known actress, and the initial run of the production is a big success. 

Halina later plays Dorothee, who takes the role of Manke in the first English-language production and then later on Broadway. Dorothee relates to Manke because she is in love with Reina, who plays Rifkele. She views Manke as the most complex and compelling character she is likely to get the chance to play. Although Dorothee is furious when the play gets changed, her desire to have a Broadway career pushes her to play the part regardless of her feelings. Finally, Halina portrays Manke when the troupe is in the Łódź Ghetto. Halina also plays minor roles, including the other Bagelman sister and Dr. Horing, the physician who speaks to Sholem and Madje about Sholem’s psychological distress.

Mendel is older than Avram. In the Łódź Ghetto, he plays some of the minor female characters because there are not enough actors for all the parts. He also plays Nakhmen, a writer and critic at Peretz’s literary salon in Warsaw. Nakhmen is initially dismissive of The God of Vengeance, regarding it as antisemitic, but later, when attempting to escape Poland in the 1930s, he uses his connection to Sholem to try to persuade ambassadors to give him a visa. Mendel also portrays Harry Weinberger, the producer of the Broadway production of The God of Vengeance. Weinberger fields mountains of antisemitic hate mail, and decides that the best way to keep the cast safe and the play running on Broadway is to cut the romantic rain scene. This changes nothing about the play’s treatment of Judaism, but it does make the lesbianism more palatable to a broader audience. 

Mendel also plays Rabbi Joseph Silverman, the rabbi who initially brings the obscenity complaint against the actors. Silverman wants to punish the actors for what he sees as an unacceptable use of antisemitic stereotypes that could put Jewish people in danger. Mendel also plays a member of the ensemble and the police officer who arrests the cast.

Vera, one of the oldest members of the troupe, is one of the actors who writes to Sholem between 1939 and 1941; she describes Madje as her “dearest friend in all the world” and implies that Madje has sent her money so that she can buy food and warm clothes (78). In The God of Vengeance, Vera plays Sarah, Rifkele’s mother, who used to be a sex worker. Sarah wants to protect Rifkele from Yekel’s violence, but also wants her to do her duty and marry a man. Vera also plays Esther Stockton, the actress who portrays Sarah in the English and Broadway productions of The God of Vengeance. Esther is from Poland; she is a great actress but still speaks accented English. Esther believes strongly in the play, but is more jaded than the other actors and is quick to get frustrated when Virginia struggles to learn her part. Her cynical attitude also influences her feelings about the censorship of the play: She explains that average Americans would not be able to handle seeing lesbians on stage.

Vera also plays an older Madje Asch in the scene in 1952, when she and Sholem are leaving America for Europe. She encourages Sholem to talk to John Rosen about producing his play and, despite everything that has happened in the past 50 years, still believes in the message of The God of Vengeance. Vera plays a number of minor parts as well, including Mrs. Peretz, who disapproves of Sholem’s play when he first presents it at her husband’s salon.