“Indecent”

[rating=4] My grandfather was very into the “Yiddish Theater” here in Chicago. At the time, a huge Jewish community lived in the area known as Douglas Park. They lived on 13th street ( just south of Roosevelt Rd. near Kedzie). He spoke of the theater all the time and how it brought him back to his roots. Many theatergoers know very little about the history of the Jews in theater who came here from Europe and brought their culture with them. But now, thanks to Victory Gardens Theater, you can have your eyes opened to a historical event through the pen of Paula Vogel’s Tony Award nominated “Indecent” that tells the story of the controversy when Sholem Asch’s “God of Vengeance” opened on Broadway.

The play is about a lesbian romance that both enchanted and outraged the audiences it played to.  The times depicted in this story are from Warsaw in 1906 to Bridgeport Connecticut in the 1950’s and all the years inbetween. Under the direction of Gary Griffin, a master of storytelling, this is 100 minutes (no intermission) of showing us history as it may have truly happened. The play is inspired by actual events of the time, dealing with a theatrical troupe of performers and is told by a solid cast of players who take on many roles and also play the music that gets us into the time and mood of the times.

The cast includes David Darlow, Matt Deitchman (accordion ), Elleon Dobias ( violin), Cindy Gold, Noah LaPook, Benjamin Magnuson , Andrew White, Catherine LeFrere and Kiah Stern. Ms Stern and Ms LeFrere play the two females of the company who bring us the love of the two women and in a final scene bring a tear to one’s eye as we see the true feelings of these women. Each actor in this production plays a multitude of roles, and while you might get confused, if you focus on the storytelling, you will not have a problem with this at all.

The choreography by Katie Spelman is very fitting to the times and the nature of the Yiddish Theater. The set (Jeffrey D. Kmiec) is fairly simple, but again, it is the story that Griffin and Vogel are telling. The costumes ( Mara Blumenfeld) are very realistic as are the props (Eleanor Kahn) are very realistic. The sound (Christopher M. LaPorte) and lighting ( Keith Parham) are sheer perfection and the projections (Stephan Mazurek) add greatly to the overall storytelling. This is one of those productions that uses one additional technical support person, the “intimacy director”. In this case, Kristina Flutty handles this delicately and with great taste.

This is a play that depicts theatrical history, and the beauty of the art of storytelling. No matter what you think about the underlying topic, this is something that is real and has as much meaning today as it did 100 years ago.  “Indecent” will continue thru November 4th ( perhaps an extension?) with performances as follows:

Tuesdays  7:30 p.m.

Wednesdays  7:30 p.m.

Thursdays  7:30 p.m.

Fridays  7:30 p.m.

Saturdays  3 and 7:30 p.m.

Sundays  3 p.m.

Tickets range from $29- $77 and can be ordered by calling 773-871-3000 or online at http://www.victorygardens.org or at the box office, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue

ACCESSIBLE PERFORMANCES: remaining

October 14th  touch-tour at 1:30 p.m.

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Indecent”