Harry Weinberger’s papers are housed at Manuscripts and Archives at the Yale Library, and the papers of playwright Sholem Asch are housed at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. “Indecent” draws from materials in the Yale University Library. It was written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel, the Yale Rep’s playwright in residence, and created with Rebecca Taichman, a 2000 graduate of the Yale School of Drama, who directs. The controversial 1923 production of “The God of Vengeance” is the subject of “Indecent,” a new play with music that premiered last week at the Yale Repertory Theater. Weinberger, a civil libertarian and prominent attorney who had defended Emma Goldman and other radical activists, represented himself and the cast in an obscenity trial that resulted in their convictions. The producer, Harry Weinberger, and the 12-member cast pleaded not guilty to the crime of “unlawfully advertising, giving, presenting, and participating in an obscene, indecent, immoral, and impure drama or play.” On March 6, 1923, the cast and producer of the Broadway debut of Sholem Asch’s “The God of Vengeance” were arrested on obscenity charges.
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