- Ladies,
Gentlemen,
Our actors who play many many roles tonight,
First, the founding members of our troupe,
Vera Porniski and Otto Godofski, they play
all of the fathers, all of the mothers,
The sagest of our characters or
the ones who remain fools at any age,
And the members of our troupe in their prime,
Kalina Sagenski, Mendel Schultz, they play all of the vamps,
all of the vice,
The scourge and the schemers,
And our ingenues, Hannah Mandelbaum,
Avram Zeiderbaum,
All of the brides, all of the grooms,
The writers, the socialists!
So ardent in their beliefs,
So passionate in their lovemaking,
On violin, Nellie Friedman,
On clarinet, Meyer Balsam,
And on accordion, Mr, Mauritz Godofski,
My name is Lemml,
You can also call me Lew,
I am the stage manager tonight,
Usually you can find me, uh, backstage,
We have a story we want to tell you about a play,
a play that changed my life,
Every night we tell this story!
But somehow I can never remember the end,
No matter, I can remember how it begins,
It all starts with this moment,
Remember this,
- Oh,
As in oh, it's awful?
As in oh, how do I tell him?
As in oh, whom did I marry?
- Oh,
- I can't breathe,
Oh as in it's wonderful,
But it's so sad!
I love it,
- Really,
- My god, Sholem, it's all in there,
The roots of all evil,
The money, the subjugation of women,
the false piety, the terrifying violence of that father
and then, oh, Sholem,
The two girls in the rain scene,
My god, the poetry in it,
What is it about your writing that makes me hold my breath?
You make me feel the desire between these two women,
the purest, most chaste, most spiritual--
- It is, Madje, are you angry that I stole your words
for the virgin daughter?
- If Papa had come downstairs and discovered
his little Madje in flagrante--
- I would never have made it to the chuppah alive,
- It is interesting to hear your words
the night you seduced me in the mouth of a prostitute,
- I feel like a prostitute every time
I have to pander to Mr, Peretz for a reading in his salon,
- This play will cause a sensation tomorrow night,
All the other writers will be green with envy!
- No, don't bring down the evil eye,
Mr, Peretz could hate it!
- Mr, Peretz is a lovely man but he is so 19th century,
Warsaw is a provincial little town,
This play will be done all over the world,
Berlin, Moscow, Paris!
Oh!
Oh I know who would be perfect for the father,
Rudolf Schildkraut,
- Rudolf Schildkraut is a sensation right now
in Berlin with his Merchant of Venice,
I'll ask Papa for money to send you,
we've got to get this play to him,
- It's my first play!
- Our play will catch fire in Berlin,
All the German intelligencia can talk about right now
is Dr, Freud,
It's the 20th century,
We're all attracted to both sexes,
I promise, I'll understand if you become
attracted to a man,
But I will kill you if it's another woman,
- I promise I'll understand if you get attracted
to a woman as long as I can watch,
- My god!
I am now married to a playwright!
You're my warrior,
My suffragette,
- Teach me,
Take me,
I want to taste you,
- First of all, I just want to say
what a great honor it is to be under Mr, Peretz's roof,
to be standing here in front of all of these writers
whose work has been an inspiration,
- The God of Vengeance,
What a prodigy,
Does anyone mind if Lemml sits in?
He's my third cousin from Wodge,
- Well a little shtetl outside Balut, actually,
- He's a tailor from Balut, he's never seen a play,
- Lemml,
Take a seat, take a seat,
- Sir, sir, it is a real honor sir,
- Welcome,
- Oy, another play set in a brothel,
- Why are so many men writing brothel stories?
- Research,
- Mr, Peretz, Mr, Peretz, would you read Yekel?
- Mr, Peretz to play the owner of a brothel?
- I want him to play the protagonist, he has the most lines,
- Ah!
I will do my humble best,
- Fraser, you read Rifkele, the daughter,
She is 17, she is pure, and very beautiful,
Isaac, her mother Sarah,
Smart, ambitious, an ex-prostitute,
Nachman, you read Manke the prostitute,
she is in her 20s, she is the beauty of Yekel's stable,
don't use your chest voice,
I will read the stage directions,
As the curtain rises, we find ourselves in Yekel's
cozy home over the basement where his brothel is located,
There he lives with his virgin daughter and his wife,
- Woman I am not going to warn you again!
When I took you from my whore house, I told you
keep my home apart from my whores,
I had better not catch Rifkele in Manke's company again,
Up here lives my virgin daughter,
Worthy of marrying the best of men,
Like the kosher from the traif,
keep the two worlds apart,
- Manke enters, nuzzling Rifkele,
Washed in the rain, their soaked nightgowns drip water
to the floor,
Warm yourself, rub up against me--
- Higher voice, please!
- Rest your face against my breast,
Wait, wait, am I still a woman here?
Saying this to another woman,
I am not reading this garbage,
- Read Manke's line starting with
"Rest your face against my breasts,"
In this living room?
- Just read, god damnit!
- Rest your face against,,,
Against my breasts,
Yes, oh yes, and embrace me with your body,
I lay bare your breasts and wash them in the rain,
You smell like grass in the meadows,
Do you want me to, Rifkele?
Do you want us to?
- Hey none of us are reading this garbage,
- Well perhaps we should call it a day,
- Wait wait wait wait wait,
you have to read both women, Manke and Rifkele, please,
- I have never done one woman Mr, Asch much less two,
- Okay, okay, okay,
You read Rifkele, I'll be Manke,
You smell like grass in the meadows,
Do you want me to, Rifkele, do you want us to?
- Yes!
Yes!
Teach me,
Take me,
I want to taste you,
- I can't breathe,
- Rifkele, you ran away with Manke last night,
Don't tell me where she took you,
Daughter, just tell me, are you still a virgin?
Make me see right into your eyes, right into your eyes,
- I don't know!
Are you still--
I know who who are and what you do!
- I'll tell you what you know,
You know what this Torah cost?
It cost all of the whores downstairs on their backs
and their knees for a year,
And for what?
Look at me,
God wants me to fail as a father, as a husband,
Well, there's one thing I know how to do,
Make money, - Make money!
You are both paying me back,
on your backs, on your knees, down into the whorehouse
with you,
- And take the holy scroll with you,
I don't need it anymore,
- Yekel hurls down the Torah!
End of play,
Oh Mr, Asch, it is wonderful,
Asch has desecrated the Torah!
- My character Yekel does, I do not,
- If it's not a real Torah, right Mr, Asch?
It is a make believe Torah!
- Wait mother's uncle's daughter's son,
You are way out of your depth here,
I brought you here as a favor to your mother,
- It was a very big favor, cousin,
- Do you want me to Rifkele, do you want me to?
- We need to have a civil discourse,
no matter what the young men in my living room do,
Or write,
- My soul is in these pages,
- I wanna write for everyone,
- Yes, - You told me we need
plays in Yiddish that are universal,
- Plays that represent our people as valiant, heroic,
- Why must every Jew on the stage be a paragon?
- You're representing our people as prostitutes and pimps!
- Some of our people are!
- You are pouring petrol on the flames of antisemitism,
This is not the time,
- For god's sake Asch!
Write what you know, young man,
How many whore houses have you worked in?
- Excuse me,
- Ah yes, it's time for my medicine,
Thank you, my dear,
- And did you have a nice reading, Mr, Asch?
- Oh, yes ma'am,
- I loved your last short story,
A Shtetl,
So lyrical,
There seems to be much excitement in this house,
Excitement is not the best thing for Mr, Peretz's digestion,
- We won't keep him much longer,
- I think I've had enough excitement myself,
Excuse me,
- Mr, Peretz, it is because of you that we are creating
a Yiddish Renaissance,
- Come, come,
Yiddish is our mother tongue,
The language of our myths, our songs--
- Our streets!
- Our gutters, our desire,
- At the end of every day I come home from work,
kiss my wife, and go into this study,
and four nights a week I try to write something
for the Jewish people,
It may get no further than this living room,
but it's for us,
- I am not happy to produce one slim volume of poetry
every two or three years that gets read in your living room,
I am not ashamed that I want our stories
to be on every stage in every language!
- You cannot translate this hateful play!
If you must throw stones,
throw them outside the tent!
- Oy vey, listen here,
This is a play written by a Jew who hates Jews!
It's 10 Jews in a circle accusing each other
of antisemitism,
- Sholem!
You will be torn limb from limb
if the public sees this play,
Listen to me,
About your manuscript,
Burn it!
I am taking my stones outside of the tent with me,
I've always wanted to see Berlin!
- You, you must be Fraulein Elsa!
- I cannot believe I get to be in a play with
the legendary Freida Niemann,
- Please, please, the legend is flesh and blood,
I assure you,
Have you read the script?
- Oh yes, several times,
It's very daring, I think,
- Ooh good, you can explain it all to me,
- No,
I like to find the role through intuition,
Of course, when Rudolf came to me,
Frieda, we have a role, this young boy must have been
thinking of you when he wrote it,
I positively peppered him with questions,
How do these women live?
How do they dress, what do they do in bed
and how do they do it?
- Good god know, we all know what prostitutes do,
- Oh,
So you asked him about lesbians,
- You better learn to say the word out loud, my girl,
Four weeks from today we will be kissing!
Center stage,
By the way, my left profile is my good profile,
I mean I haven't read the play, but I assume
I will be the butch and you will be
the feminine little thing?
Well on one thing I am completely lost at sea,
How do I play a Jew?
Or is the proper word a Jewess?
- Um, Mrs, Frieda, I am Jewish,
- That is very brave of you,
- Very secular--
- I consider us first and foremost German,
- Excuse me missus, excuse me,
Mr, Schildkraut asking me to
to asking you what for you may I get?
What is your name, kind sir?
- Lemml, my name is,
I happiness have serve you,
- How long have you been in Berlin, Herr Lemml?
- Uh, this is the first week I come Berlin,
This is the first week I come Germany,
- Herr Lemml, please speak Yiddish,
If you like, I must learn to sound like
one of the hoards overrunning--
Well like a native, if you will,
- Thank you, missus,
I cannot believe I get this opportunity,
A job in the theater, assistant to the stage manager,
I could never imagine such a thing in Balut,
And this play, this play,
I was working as a tailor in a little shop
when one night my cousin said I could come with him
to Mr, Peretz's house,
I got to hear the play by the genius Sholem Asch,
- A genius, a Yiddish genius!
A Polack genius!
- They got genius outside of Germany too,
- Ooh,
- This play will be done all over the world!
Lemml, where are you?
- I here am, Mr, Schildkraut!
- Call the company to the stage,
- To the stage, please come!
- Good morning,
Good morning!
Today we gather in this august building
where we last rehearsed the Merchant of Venice
to peddle a different pound of flesh,
As you know, a few short months ago I was stalked
by a young gentleman,
As I was sipping my melange at the Cafe Krantzler,
a Polish countryman approached me
with such fresh energy and sincerity,
traits that have almost perished in our cosmopolitan Berlin,
That very night I went home with his script
and I woke up with a fever to produce
The God of Vengeance!
To play this outcast, rejected by pious Jews,
roaring at his maker!
Ladies, gentlemen, I give you the playwright
of this brilliant little play, Mr, Sholem Asch,
- Thank you, thank you,
I don't want to terrify you, but this is my first play,
- Oh,
- This past fall, I sat down at my desk in Warsaw,
and I asked myself,
how do we as artists question our sins in front
of a greater audience?
How do we as Jews show ourselves as flawed
and complex human beings?
Never did I dream that this great artist
would choose to inhabit a man on the edge
of our society wrestling with his sins
and his god, I have written only poetry
and short stories alone at my desk
and I never realized that when one writes a play,
one is no longer alone,
- Let's begin!
Daughter, just tell me, are you still a virgin?
Let me see right into your eyes, right into your eyes,
- I don't know!
Are you still--
I know who you are and what you do!
- No, no!
- I'll tell you what you know!
You know what this Torah cost?
It cost all of the whores downstairs on their backs
and their knees for a year!
And for what?
Look at me,
God wants me to fail as a father?
- No!
- Well there's one thing
I know how to do,
Make money!
You are both paying me back,
On your backs, on your knees!
Down into the whore house with you!
- Help, he's going crazy!
- Down into the whore house with you,
And take your holy scroll with you,
I don't need it anymore!
- Help, he's going crazy!
- And take the holy scroll with you!
I don't need it anymore!
- Help, he's going crazy!
- And take the holy scroll with you!
I don't need it anymore!
- Help!
He's going crazy!
- And take the holy scroll with you!
I don't need it anymore!
- Lemml, Lemml!
Over here, over here,
- Ah, Mr, Asch,
- I can't wait to stand beside you next week
when you raise the curtain on The God of Vengeance
at the Bowery Theater!
It hasn't been the same!
The troupe can't wait to meet you,
- Mr, Asch,
How did you do such a thing back there?
The weeping, the pleading,
They are sending so many people back,
But I got in,
- There were a few strings that we could pull,
- Of course,
Because you are Sholem Asch!
Nobody in Balut believes you sent for me
when I came to say goodbye,
- You were my first advocate,
- My life,
It is changed,
- I want to see your face when you see it,
Welcome to America,
- America!
I here am!
Ah!
- Speak English, every time we're alone together
you insist on speaking Yiddish,
My god, Reina, we're supposed to open this show
in English next week,
- I don't need your permission to speak in Yiddish
when we're in private,
- Reina,
We are the first generation to get the chance
our parents never got,
To tell our stories on American stages,
We are moving uptown to the Village
and I want you to come with me,
Please just speak English with me, Reina!
- Ruth,
You can call me Reina at home,
Sit beside me,
Let's just run the lines,
- No right, from Sarah's line,
Brush your hair, get dressed, the minyan is on its way,
- I'll call Manke to come up to brush mine hore,
I love it when she brushes mine hore,
Mine hore-- - Hair,
- Mine hair gets so smooth,
Mr, Schildkraut won't replace me,
- We have a week to learn this English translation,
- And what, from now on only English between us?
- Yeah, - Dina, I don't know who
this Dorothee is,
- Dorothee,
It's my name now, it's the same woman you loved as Dina,
I would like to speak with Miss Ruth,
- I'll go, - No she stay,
- Oy, oy, oy, a long day,
Miss Ruth,
It's no good,
I talk the way I talk, Miss Dorothee talks better,
but when people hear Rifkele, they got to hear a pure girl
onstage, no shtetl, no girl off the boat,
They got to see their own American daughter,
We have to let you go,
You will be a beauty for our people
on the Yiddish stage for decades to come,
- In English,
You tell me leave in English,
- I am sorry,
- No no, Mr, Schildkraut,
Ruth and I--
- Can rehearse all night until--
- Nothing help unless want to quit with me, Dina?
No?
I thought not,
Go please, Mr, Schildkraut,
- Reina,
I'll see you at home,
- I'm so sorry, Miss Reina,
- Two days ago,
I was told to say nothing,
- My role--
- They have already recast Rifkele,
- This is the only role in my lifetime
where I could tell someone I love
that I love her onstage,
- I will come and see you on the Yiddish stage
and throw flowers,
- Well it may be quite some time before I get a job again
so throw food,
- No-- - Thank you, Lemml,
- Mr, Schildkraut says I gotta have an American name
for the Greenwich Village too,
It's Lew,
Lew,
- Goodbye, Lew,
Who is he, Mama?
- A darling boy, a treasure from a wonderful family
and handsome like a rabbi,
Okay, this is where you say your line,
- Rudolf,
- She's just asking where the beautiful young lady
should go,
Morris Carnovsky, I play Shloyme, one of the pimps,
- Miss MacFadyen, now you go to Dorothee
as if you was going to hug your fiance
before you was married,
Yes Miss MacFadyen, perfect,
Now, you say,
- She's saying she'd sell herself for a cigarette,
- Morris Carnovsky, you are not in this scene,
- I'm helping to translate, - Shut up!
- She's hugging me like her fiance,
- Shut up,
Miss MacFadyen, now you are gonna kiss Dorothee
the way you will get to kiss your husband
on your wedding night,
- Lucky man, - Morris, shush,
- Yes, yes,
- Wunderbar,
- Nice work, really nice work, - Oy,
- So you want to just lay yourself against her,
It is now the morning after
and you are two happy cats who licking the cream,
- Excuse me Mr, Schildkraut,
Could you tell me in English?
- I am speaking in the English,
- Just place my hands wherever you feel comfortable,
- Can you move your hands up to her breasten more
Dorothee? - I am not a happy cat,
- I don't got nothing like that in my pages,
Mr, Schildkraut,
- 10 minutes, ladies, gentlemen,
- Thank you Lemml,
- Just call me Lew,
And may I say, Miss MacFadyen, I have been
with this show from the first show,
I seen all of the shows of this show,
You are gonna be magnificent,
10 minutes,
- I know it must be hard for you to step in like this
but you are doing a great job,
- I don't mean to terrify you, but this is my first show,
- Wow,
That is brave,
I mean this show--
- Well I'm hoping it shocks my parents,
When can I meet the playwright?
- Sholem Asch has practically become a recluse
on Staten Island,
He works very hard on his novels,
I love his work,
He shows women as flesh and blood, how hard it is,
it was,,,
Mr, Schildkraut compares the rain scene in act two
to the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet,
and for me the scene in the rain is,,,
It's just,,,
I'm just having a hard time with my English today,
I thought we were lesbians,
- I,,,
- I like to think of all the layers of love,
Mother, sister, daughter,
- I mean, before we have to do it in front of everyone,
Should we just try it by ourselves?
- I think you did a good job of it before the break,
- I just thought,,,
Sorry,
You certainly do not need any practice, I must say,
- Why don't we just try it on the cheek in rehearsal
and then after that--
- Perhaps we should save the lips for opening night,
I mean,,,
- My parents would never have let me,
And at Smith there was no theater really--
- Oh, Smith,
As in college,
- Yes, I've been around lots of girls
so that should help in this play,
- And what would shock your parents the most,
that you are playing in a Jewish company?
That you are playing a Jewish girl?
Or that you are playing a girl in love with a prostitute?
- I hope all of it,
- It is a wonderful job you are doing, Miss Virginia,
- I can't stop my body from shaking,
- It's your first time on stage, the fright,
- Every time I see Dorothee, I feel her so much on stage
I get scared I'll go up on my lines,
- You have to feel what Rifkele feels, yes?
This is what happens to actors,
It's a good thing,
- It is hard to breathe,
- I know nothing about the Christian church,
You was brought up in the church?
- Yes,
- Maybe how your Rifkele feels for Manke is a sin
in your church,
In this play, how you feel for her, she for you,
To me, after the messiah comes, no hate, no beating,
No sin,
- Rifkele,
Rifkele, I need your help,
- Breathe deep,
- Papa and the rabbi will be here soon
with the Torah scroll,
- Just look at Miss Dorothee while you shake,
Your cue, it is coming,
- Rifkele please, they will be here any minute!
- Now, now, get, get!
- I'll call Manke to come up and brush my hair,
I love it when she brushes my hair,
My hair gets so smooth,
Manke!
- No, Rifkele, don't!
Papa's gonna break our necks,
I told you to stop seeing that girl,
You two got nothing in common,
The guests will be here any moment,
We're arranging a bridegroom for you,
Who is he, Mama?
- A wonderful boy from a wonderful family,
handsome like a rabbi,
- In your bedroom,
Right under your papa's roof,
There beneath the holy scroll your papa bought
you will do your wifely duty,
- Very much, my dearest daughter,
Every night,
- Beautiful, beautiful,
- I don't ever wanna stop acting, ever!
- Ladies, gentlemen, I give you our producer
at the Greenwich Theater, Mr, Harry Weinberger,
- Oh of all the places in New York I have called home,
the courtrooms, the picket lines, the labor unions,
the best home for me has been standing in the back
of the orchestra at the Provincetown Players!
Oh,
I got in on the ground floor as producer
of a little play by a wild Irishman name of Eugene O'Neill,
The Hairy Ape,
So I have recently found a new home on Broadway
and it got me thinking,
What if a play came my way written by a fellow Jew
that told our stories?
So I'm here to announce two weeks from today
The God of Vengeance starring Rudolf Schildkraut
opens at the Apollo Theater on Broadway!
- It's garbage!
They've cut the rain scene,
- Did I not say to you to keep the new scripts
to yourself?
- Miss Nelson, I was about to ask you for a coffee after,
- Every day downtown we are sold out,
Every day another stack of hate mail arrives,
And I read every single letter that comes in,
Jews, Polacks, take your filth back to your own country,
Dirty kikes, you pollute our stage,
That's what we're up against,
- Did the playwright agree to cut the most beautiful
love scene he will ever write?
- We told him and he signed the contract
with the same hand that cashed the check,
- Now we have to strengthen the moral argument,
For audiences on Broadway!
- My Manke is no longer a woman in love,
she's an evil procuress lusting after a little girl
to peddle her ass!
Now instead of us falling in love in this obscenity
of a world, instead of me trying to rescue you,
the new script has me entrapping you
into a life of white slavery!
I've been promoted to head pimp!
- Miss Nelson, I don't wanna hurt your feelings
but this production cannot be seen to celebrate
two women in love,
After we open we can restore--
- Miss Dorothee, I could make my Broadway debut
in many, many shows,
Shakespeare, Chekhov, George Bernard Shaw,
I chose a new play by a living Yiddish writer,
with a masterpiece,
God forbid goyim think that ladies who work the streets
are human beings,
God forbid goyim think that Jewish ladies love each other
as human beings,
We could let the original script speak for us,
- Look, here's what's going to happen,
Mr, and Mrs, Smith get on the train from Connecticut,
They bring Junior and the daughter to the matinee,
and what Mr, Weinberger don't wanna see
is a red-faced Mr, Smith pulling his goyishe son
out of their orchestra seats and marching the Smith family
up the aisles because Junior is getting a little excited,
And they're gonna spend the train ride home explaining
to the daughter why these two girls was kissing,
Let's just say the (speaking foreign language) word,
Among the intelligencia, lesbians sell tickets,
Uptown, for Mr, and Mrs, Smith, prostitutes in a brothel
is all the excitement they can take,
- Mr, Weinberger, did you know every night during
the rain scene, the entire troupe line up in the wings
and watch,
- I watch from stage left, - Stage right in the wings,
- In Berlin, in Moscow, in the Greenwich Village
every night the entire troupe,
- I have sacrificed a lot to play this one flesh and blood
woman,
- Anybody here can't accommodate the changes to the script,
now would be a good time to let us know,
♪ Every morning every evening ♪
♪ Ain't we got fun ♪
♪ Not much money oh but honey ♪
♪ Ain't we got fun ♪
♪ There's nothing surer ♪
♪ The rich get rich and the poor get laid off ♪
♪ In the meantime in the dreamtime ♪
- He has not slept for weeks,
Every evening he leaves our bed,
Every morning I find him awake in his study,
- Was there anything about the last few months
that was abnormal in your routine, Mr, Asch?
- Tell her about Vilna,
Tell her about Kiev,
- I have just returned from a trip to Europe,
- He was head of a delegation for the American Jewish
Joint Committee, a fact-finding trip to Europe,
- He was investigating pogroms,
Vilna, Kiev, - Ah,
- Yeah, the old country,
- He will not talk to me about what he saw,
He has not been himself since his return,
- She wants to know how you feel,
- I am unable to sleep,
Lack of concentration, lack of appetite,
lack of enjoyment,
- A great deal of lack,
He does not leave the house,
He is about to make his Broadway debut
and he has not gone to a single rehearsal,
Every day the stage manager calls,
"Where is your husband, Mrs, Asch?"
- Here is a prescription for Seconal,
You are exhibiting nervous exhaustion,
- Complete bed rest is often quite successful with women
and writers,
For men, however, going west is better suited
to the restoration of masculine energy and vitality,
Cattle roping, treks in the Rockies, and buffalo hunting,
If there are any buffalo to be found,
- She gives you a choice of either being
strapped to your bed or buffalo hunting,
- You ask here if there is anything in her charts
that can map the disintegration of the Jewish psyche
due to centuries of persecution!
Does he exhibit feelings of paranoia?
Of course, a brief period of seclusion
in upstate New York might just be the thing,
It is so beautiful in the spring,
Would you both wait a moment while I consult with my nurse?
- She wants to commit you,
Come home with me,
You can rest at home,
I'll go with you to a rehearsal,
It'll cheer up the troupe to see you,
And then we can go to the Apollo Theater
for our opening night,
- My god,
- Those were not minor changes,
Oh, Sholem!
- I feel sick to my stomach, my god,
- Why are there so many police in the house?
- It's nothing,
- I've never attended a Broadway opening before,
Are you saying this is what they do uptown?
- Well you know we've had threats,
- There were threats downtown,
We never had police downtown,
- Nobody paid attention because we were downtown,
- Are they gonna stop the show because of the lesbianism?
Because of the Torah, because of the prostitution?
- Because I'm Jewish, because we're Polack kikes
on Broadway!
I gotta go backstage,
I gotta go find Harry,
Try to look like you're enjoying it,
- Well these things happen,
Manke is opening a whorehouse of her own,
With our daughter,
We bought her a Torah to keep her pure,
we can buy her back,
Oh, the diamond earrings Yekel gave me,
These'll do the trick,
I will be back with our daughter if I have to drag her
by the hair through the streets,
And if we pull this off and we buy her a husband, what then?
A boy who is scared to look at her,
Who prays for his sins if he happens to see her flesh
and god forbid become stiff,
But then she meets an older girl,
A girl who is rough around the edges,
Who promises her soft things and Manke knows how to
brush on the rouge, how to stand in the light,
how to touch Rifkele's hair so lightly,
like a feather, like silk,
These things happen!
Well no squelching once the
is signed,
And what are we selling to the buyer, huh?
Tissue,
A thin strip of flesh,
A spot of blood,
A pinch,
And it's over,
Our daughter,
A deal's a deal,
- I'm Officer Baile with the 4th Precinct, vice squad,
And you are?
I am the stage manager of the play,
We got a cue coming up here, officer,
- They told me to wait until the end of the play,
Who's this?
- That is the playwright, Sholem Asch,
He wrote the play,
- Oi, Mr, Asch,
I'd like to spend a night in your mind,
May I ask the company to meet me here
when the play is over?
- I will do whatever the law asks me to do officer,
but I got a cue coming,
- We got a cue coming,
- Don't have a warrant for you, Mr, Asch,
Just the actors,
- Go, go!
- Come in, come in, your papa won't beat you,
- Don't be afraid, I won't beat you,
Don't be afraid,
- Rifkele, you ran away with Manke last night,
Don't tell me where she took you,
Daughter, just tell me,
Are you still a virgin?
Let me see right into your eyes, right into your eyes!
- I don't know,
- What do you mean, you don't know!
Are you still--
I know who you are and what you do,
- No!
- I'll tell you what you know!
You know what this Torah cost?
It cost all of the whores downstairs on their backs
and their knees for a year!
And for what?
Look at me,
God wants me to fail as a father?
- No,
Well there's one thing I know how to do,
Make money!
You are both paying me back, on your backs, on your knees!
Down into the whore house with you!
- Help, he's going crazy!
- And take the holy scroll with you!
I don't need it anymore!
- Every time I pick up the paper and I read about
a robber who assaults an 80 year old grandmother,
A mother who was at a bar when a fire broke out
and consumed all of her children at home,
Men who are caught together in the park
in the light of day,
I lift my face to the heavens and I pray
please oh lord, please, do not let them be Jewish,
This is what it means to be Jewish in America,
Each day we struggle to uplift the wretched refuse
who huddle 10 to a room on the Lower East Side,
aware of our American duty and privilege as Jews
who have long called these shores our home,
We advocate day and night that the restriction
on the so-called Polack, kritvak, greenhorn
that these quotas be lifted so that those unfortunate
of our faith can escape the massacres spreading through
Europe!
But none of us can live in a constant vigilance
so perhaps we go to the theater for a little relief,
To be in a community that laughs together and what
is in the theater?
A title glares its name in neon lights on Broadway,
The God of Vengeance,
By Sholem Asch,
Now I expect scurrilous lies to my face
from the crackpots who call themselves Christian,
But to be hit by a stone in my back by a fellow Jew?
I am not unaware that there is a Jewish underground
in our cities, yes, there are girls who in fleeing Vilna,
Kiev, Galisea, without father or family,
ply their flesh to buy their daily bread,
Are there misguided girls among them who
turn to each other in confusion?
Of course,
Yes there are men who buy their bread on the sweat
of these women's backs rather than the honorable sweat
of their own!
Of these parasites I say stand them back!
I know you have heard me denounce this play before,
I acted on my words,
I registered the complaint,
And I'm happy to tell you that as of last night,
the play has been closed down by the vice squad,
And all cast members have been arrested for obscenity,
Please join with me in prayer for a righteous verdict,
It is now in the hands of an American jury,
We ask that they defend our good name,
- Ester, Ester,
- Hello my girl,
Oh Reina, we've missed you,
- I've been so worried,
I ask that young Cossack to take me too,
He didn't want nothing of me,
- Harry was just paying her bail when I left,
she'll be right behind me,
- Miss MacFadyen's father sent a fancy schmancy lawyer,
She is on her way back to North Carolina,
- When the going gets tough, the goyim get going,
Last night, the vice squad rounded up girls
from the cat houses who hadn't paid up so around three,
four in the morning all these girls was pouring in,
Then I told them I was a thespian,
There was a lot of jokes the rest of the night,
Ah, sticks and bones, huh?
They was all American girls,
Some of their words weren't so dainty
but their English was perfect,
Lew, in my head I can hear those English words so good,
- Yeah,
- But then when I open my mouth it's like
the dust of Poland is in my throat,
- I didn't think you'd come,
- God, I couldn't sleep when Lew called,
Did you get any sleep?
- I haven't slept in weeks, not since I left your bed,
- Come home with me,
I said some things I should not have said,
- You said the truth,
I wouldn't be ashamed to be arrested
for acting in the play I believed in,
I'm ashamed for acting in this sham I don't believe in,
- You wanted to be on Broadway, why are you--
- Bedbugs,
You still want me in your bed?
- Ach!
We are going go home,
We will stand together on the ,
- Threshold,
- The threshold of our home,
First you take off clothes,
All,
Then I take off all,
So then I wash them, the clothes,
- Oh,
- Then for you I make a hot bath and we both get in the--
- Bathtub,
- In our kitchen,
You lean against me, and I will wash your hair,
And then we will see what will happen,
- Reina,
- Sorry if some of the fellas were a bit rough on you,
They tagged you for a prohibition agent
hell-bent on breaking our bottles,
- I'm a stage manager, The God of Vengeance,
- You could use a drink then,
The finest spirit you can find south of Canada,
Does the trick,
Drink up,
So what can I do for you?
- Lew,
I just want to say Mr, O'Neill what an honor it is
and congratulations on the Pulitzer for your play
Anna Christie and thank you for being willing to testify
for our production,
- Oh hell, I wish I could have,
It's a corker of a play,
You left before?
- The court dismissed all the defense witnesses,
We're all barred from testifying,
You all are up shite's creek without a paddle,
- So your Mr, Asch and your play itself
aren't on trial for obscenity,
The production is,
- Yes sir, but--
- So I couldn't testify to the wholesome
and morally fortifying nature of this production
because I saw it downtown at the Provincetown Players,
They say the script may have been tampered with
on its way uptown,
- Oh, - Was the script changed
from when I saw it?
- It was, - God damn Harry!
Look he's a smart lawyer, he's my lawyer,
but he doesn't know his rising action
from his pergation,
You only got one chance now as I see it,
You got to get your Mr, Asch on that defense stand
in behalf of his play,
He has got to explain a few basic things,
That when we sell our souls for money,
it is a long and lonely life without love,
Your Mr, Asch is a fierce moralist,
They're gonna claim they're closing it
because of homosexualis,
That's bunk,
They're closing it because the play shows
that every religion, even Jews, sell god for a price,
Give my admiration to Mr, Asch,
He has crafted a play that shrouds us in a deep, deep fog
of human depravity,
And then, like a lighthouse, those two girls,
That is a beacon I will remember,
Tell him to keep his head down, don't take any shots
to his kidneys, then up up left jab right hook combination,
- Yes sir,
- Better luck on his next play,
- Mr, Asch doesn't write plays anymore, only novels,
- Smart man,
The stage,
I wish I could quit it,
That old devil sea, she make them crazy fools
with her dirty tricks,
It's so,
- Husband, that was Lemml on the phone,
- I am trying to write!
It's like a goddamn circus down here with you
and the children!
- The children and I tiptoe around here
like it's a goddamn museum,
Look, you have got to call him back,
This is Lemml, he worships you,
You can't just discard people,
The court has thrown out all the defense witnesses,
I have laid out your clothes, you need to change,
we have to catch the ferry in half an hour,
- This is a nightmare,
- Harry will translate what you say if he has to,
- You just need to make an appearance--
- There are massacres happening all across Europe
and I'm supposed to care about something that I wrote
when I was in short pants?
- It's still a very important play,
- Madje, Madje, I can't,
I can't, I just can't,
- I wish you'd never gone to Vilna,
I wish you would tell me what you saw,
- I don't want you to know,
You're my wife,
Everything is reversed now, like a photographic negative,
Our home, our garden, the theater,
The streets of America feel very far away,
What is real to me?
Vivid to me?
I can't get the images out of my head,
It's hard for me to kiss our children at night
and when as head of our delegation I reported
all of the atrocities I saw, what was the response
from our State Department?
These things happen,
- I think you should tell your friends
that you're struggling with this,
Tell Lemml, he's wondering where you are,
- No, I have to pull myself together,
I don't want people to know that I'm sitting
in my house weeping,
Will you call Lemml? - Of course,
- I'll write a letter to the court,
- Yes,
Your words are powerful,
- I have to write something to change the way
the gentiles see us,
To make them see that we are one people
with one common root,
Or they will rip us out root by root from the earth
until we are no more,
It's coming,
It's coming here,
- No,
No, it won't happen here,
We're safe here,
- The defendants have been found guilty
of presenting an indecent, obscene, and immoral play
exhibition and drama,
Although the theatrical profession
is not as exalted as the other literary arts,
This judgment still signals that the people
of New York State are entitled to morally upright,
wholesome American drama,
The time has come when the drama must be purified
of Eastern exoticism,
Its sexual pollution and its corruptive attitude
towards the family,
Court dismissed,
- Oh,
- Sorry Mrs, Madje,
We don't want to disturb your husband,
- My god, Lemml,
I didn't expect,,,
Are you alright?
- I've been better,
The world spins on,
- I wanted to see what the sunrise was like
from Staten Island,
- Come in Lemml, I'm putting on the coffee,
- No no no, no thank you,
I do not want to step over your ,
- Lemml, please,
- I might be a dybbuk,
A dead soul inside a stage manager,
- Lemml,
My good man, please, come in,
- I don't think I am your good man anymore, Mr, Asch,
- Please yourself,
The time to join me was yesterday, or the day before,
That was the time to join me,
- I owe you an apology,
- You owe me nothing!
The letter you wrote the court was very beautiful,
You got powerful words, Mr, Asch,
- I know you still think of me as the young firebrand
you saw the night we met,
Every day since the first day we read it out loud
I have been under attack!
Mr, Peretz was right,
The play is a stone,
- I didn't expect you to defend the play,
I expected you to defend us!
Do you know, Mr, Asch, the play has ended
Mr, Schildkraut's chances at the great roles
in the theater?
He will never get the chance on the American stage again,
- He's a giant on the stages of Europe,
- If he stays in this country,
the best he can hope for on the American stage
is to play the stage Jew,
- At least he'll make a living, none of you
will be out of work,
We are not doing your play for the money!
I can make as much with my sewing,
Why did you agree to those cuts?
You cut the love between those two girls!
There's only sex left!
- I told Harry and Rudolf to do what they wanted,
it's my play!
- And mine,
It's my play too,
- Excuse me, missus,
The play belongs to the people who labor in it,
And the audiences who set aside the time to be there
in person,
- The truth is I never checked the cuts!
I can barely read English,
I can barely speak!
The writer of world literature!
I couldn't walk into that court in front
of all those American reporters!
They would have laughed at me!
Can you imagine if I open my mouth to speak,
I would sound just like you,
- I am done being in a country that laughs
at the way I speak,
They say America is free!
What do you do here is free?
All over Europe they did this play,
No Cossacks shutting us down,
Berlin, Moscow, Odessa, everywhere there is theater,
You don't have money for a ticket,
tickets over there cost less than a cup of tea,
Then you dress up nice, in your best coat,
maybe you stand in the second gallery,
but you can say to your grandchildren
I saw the great Rudolf Schildkraut in Sholem Asch's
The God of Vengeance,
I am leaving this country,
- No, no, wait, Lemml wait-- - Lemml the places you know--
- No,
You have washed your hands clean of this tailor from Balut,
Who doesn't stand up for the name on his title page?
I am taking the manuscript in Yiddish with me,
Mr, Asch,
Your play, it changed my life,
- Lemml wait-- - No no no!
I am leaving! - Listen!
♪ Of all the boys I've known and I've known some ♪
♪ Until I first met you I was lonesome ♪
♪ And then you came in sight dear ♪
♪ My heart grew light and this old world seemed new to me ♪
♪ You're really swell I have to admit you ♪
♪ Deserve expressions that really fit you ♪
♪ So I've wracked my brain hoping to explain ♪
♪ All the things that you do to me ♪
♪ Please let me explain ♪
♪ Means that you're grand ♪
♪ Again I'll explain ♪
♪ It means you're the fairest in the land ♪
♪ I could say ♪
- I would like to speak to the French ambassador,
♪ How grand you are ♪
- Excuse me, do you speak Yiddish, Hebrew, Polish?
I would like to talk to the ambassador,
I'm sure he's busy, he will want to make time for me,
I am a Yiddish writer well-known throughout Europe,
I come from Warsaw,
Yes,
What, do I know Sholem Asch?
Of course,
I gave him notes in the salon during the first reading
of The God of,,,
Would you please ask if I might talk to the,,,
- Dear Madje, dear Sholem,
We opened The God of Vengeance last night
to thunderous applause,
- Thank you so much
for the opening night care package,
- Thank you so much for the new book,
I love your novels,
- The authorities are cramming in Jews from Germany
into every spare inch of space,
Sholem Asch has said that I was an inspiration for--
- Dear Sholem, you must tell your wife, my dearest friend
in all the world that I feel rich,
I have a warm coat and little food,
- Sholem Asch, Sholem,
- The authorities have walled us in
to the old Balut district to the north,
- I can still see the city park across the street,
- We're still performing The God of Vengeance
in all kinds of spaces, - Basements,
- Cafes, - The lobby of the old
children's hospital, - The authorities forbid us
to perform plays,
- Goodbye Shakespeare, - Chekhov,
- Songs, dances, skits only, six nights a week,
Nachman is learning French,
- Oh Mrs, Asch I most of all want to lie in the grass again,
Smell the grass,
Nachman is learning Spanish,
Nachman is learning Chinese,
I been waiting for three days in a very long line,
Oh please, oh please, do not close the gates before I,,,
My dear Asch,
It's been a long time since we read your brilliant
little play in the living room,
A lot of Yiddish water has flowed over the Polish dam,
Ha ha,
It is hard for me to ask you,
The authorities have confiscated our passports,
Is there any way you might put in a word to the consulate
to make an exception for me?
- Lemml,
I hope I may still call myself your friend,
My letters to you have all been returned to sender,
If you get this, please respond,
- Alright, alright, people,
This will make a stage,
- Uh, Mrs, Gitla won't mind,
Hannah, this will be the sitting room,
Kalina, over here, the stairs,
- And here's the curtain for Ms, Manke's place of business,
- Yes Mira, excellent,
Matches, Lemml,
- Mandel, don't waste a single one,
Ira, no, let me do that,
You get yourself ready,
Otto, do we have an audience?
- A few souls,
- Let's hope they brought some food,
- Or some money, - Ha ha!
- Alright, may I have your attention please?
Everyone draw near,
Five minutes to the top of act two, come, come, come,
We are a few players,
We are missing a few of the cast,
Hannah, remember to keep the shawl over your head
when you play one of the working girls downstairs,
Mandel, Avram, you wear the shawls--
- Yes darling,
- Hannah, Hannah,
When you enter as Rifkele--
- Without the shawl, - Yeah,
Kalina, are you feeling strong enough?
Then you play Manke tonight, Manke only,
We will not wet the shawls during the rain scene, okay?
I will read the stage directions,
As it is in your nightgown
you will catch your death of cold,
- I'm fine,
- Alright,
People,
Ester,
Everyone,
Take,
Places for act two,
- Ladies and gentlemen,
let's have a round of applause for our band!
Making the clarinet !
On violin, our very own Janet Liebmann!
On the accordion, ,
Welcome to our show tonight,
As you know, six nights a week we gather together
to sing songs we know and love,
To dance,
♪ Hey ♪
To escape our daily lives,
But on the seventh night, God created Yiddish theater!
First let me give our thanks to Mrs, Gitla Bernofsky
for letting us use this spacious attic for our show,
Thank you Mrs, Gitla,
Tonight we are going to perform act two
of the greatest play ever written
by one of our countrymen, Mr, Sholem Asch,
The God of Vengeance,
As you all know, as a young man I was privileged
to hear the first reading of this masterpiece in Warsaw
and it changed my life,
Last week we presented act one,
God-willing, next week we will all still be here
to perform act three,
Does anybody need to know what happens in the first act?
So you all know last week act one happened upstairs
in Yekel's living room,
Tonight takes place in another location in Yekel's house,
the cellar,
Manke, the star of his stable, is forming a friendship,
yes, with the daughter,
Okay, that's all we need to know,
Speaking of gelt,
Should tonight's performance move you,
we would appreciate any contribution,
a mark or two, any food you may be able to spare,
and if tonight's performance does not move you,
please throw food,
Kugel, rugulah, anyone?
We have made slight cuts to the script
so that we do not break the curfew,
And in tonight's performance, in the role of Manke,
played so brilliantly the last few years
by our very own Ada Bornstein, Kalina Saganski
is stepping in tonight,
To set the scene,
It is late night in the ghetto,
It is raining,
Without further ado, The God of Vengeance, act two,
- Ah,
Rifkele!
- Manke!
Manke, did you call me?
- Yes, Rifkele, come let's stand in the May rain,
We'll splash water over each other and get wet
down to our skin!
- Shh, speak softly,
- I'll loosen your hair,
I wanna wash your hair in the rain,
- I heard you tapping and I tiptoed so quietly
Papa couldn't hear me,
- The night is so beautiful,
And the rain is so fresh and everything is so sweet
in this air!
- My father beat me,
- He won't hurt you anymore,
Are you shivering?
- I'm cold!
- Here, let me wrap my body around you,
- That's nice,
- You smell like grass,
In the meadows,
You let me wash your breasts in the rain, I did,
Your breasts are so pale,
So soft,
- Manke,
I want you to teach me,
- Wait wait wait wait,
Let me brush your hair,
Like a bride's hair, in two long braids,
Do you want me to?
Rifkele,
Do you want us to?
- Yes,
Yes,
- You are my bride,
You take my breath away!
Will you sit at the Shabbas table
after you parents have gone to sleep,
We're alone,
We're shy,
But you are my bride and I am your bridegroom,
- Manke,
I want you to take me,
- I want to taste you,
Isn't it good?
- Yes,
- Now we lie together in one bed, no one will see,
Would you like to stay all night with me?
In one bed?
- I do,
I do,
- I can't breathe!
Come to me,
- I'm scared,
- Please don't let this be the ending,
♪ We know we belong to the land ♪
♪ And the land we belong to is grand ♪
♪ And when we say ♪
♪ Yeeow ♪
♪ Aye-yip-aye-yo-ee-ay ♪
♪ We're only sayin' ♪
♪ You're doin' fine, Oklahoma ♪
♪ Oklahoma O,K, ♪
♪ Oklahoma ♪
- Everything's all packed up,
When we get to London, we can tell them
where to send the furniture,
We'll have a nice visit with our daughter,
We'll figure it out,
- We could just leave it,
Everything,
- I told that nice young man he could stop by
for a quick visit before we left,
The one who is producing your play,
- We are inviting him over our
while we still have one,
That's him,
- Rome is burning and you want to put on a play,
- Rome is always burning,
Last night you said you'd consider it,
Sholem, please,
Give him just a moment of your time,
- I am beside myself with anticipation,
- Be nice,
- Thank you Mrs, Asch,
I promise I won't keep your husband long,
Mr, Asch, uh,,,
Can I just say what a great honor this is for me?
- So you are a lover of Yiddish literature, Mr,,,
- John Rosen,
John,
My grandparents speak Yiddish, but my parents--
- Your parents wanted you to grow up American,
This story I have heard,
Madje tells me that you got into Yale,
It is easier for a camel he should go through
the eye of a needle than Jew he should enter
the kingdom of Yale,
Madje has read your new translation of the play,
I have not,
She tells me it is good,
- Well I have brought you the most recent copy,
I know I am young, but I am starting a new theater company
for the great classic works of the stage
that asks urgent moral questions,
- In Connecticut,
Well good luck with that, young man,
- The God of Vengeance has the urgency of today,
I want to bring it to American audiences
just as you wrote it,
- Young man, I have to tell you,
I no longer care what is done on the stages
of this country,
Theater companies are started by young men
who have the luxury to care about where they live
or the false belief that they will be allowed to live
in the place they care about,
A little invite from the congress,
The House of the Un-American Activities,
In 1905, I was attracted by socialist,
We are all brothers, ,
- Mr, Asch, you must fight this,
- Mr, John,
Have you ever lost audience members?
Did you watch them walk up the aisle
in the middle of your play?
- Yes, that happens all the time to me at Yale!
Townspeople fleeing up the aisles,
- Ah,
I too have lost audience members,
Six million,
Have left the theater,
I am sorry to waste your time,
I will not let this play be produced no more,
I wrote it in a different time,
The time has changed on me,
You must excuse me, the way out you know,
In the words of a much wiser man,
if I was you, burn it,
- Mr, Asch,
I may have to wait many, many years
but I am producing your play,
- Rifkele!
Rifkele!