Scenes from The People vs. The God of Vengeance
Sholem Asch's classic, explosive Yiddish drama God of Vengeance created an uproar sixty six years ago when it hit Broadway. Its creators were arrested for obscenity and the show was shut down.
The People vs. The God of Vengeance, a new play by Rebecca Taichman, with live music by Michael Alpert of Brave Old World, is based on the proceedings against the 1923 Broadway production. By interweaving text from the play with transcript from the obscenity trial, The People vs. The God of Vengeance attempts to capture a vital moment in theater history. The new play will explore the complex story of how a piece of art was manipulated and twisted in an excruciating fight for justice, as well as explore the internal drama of how the censorious mind works.
The world premier of this new production took place at the Yale Drama
School May 8-13, 2000 and was featured at the conference Sholem Asch
Reconsidered, held at Yale May 13-15, 2000.
