God of Vengeance

By Sholom Asch
Translated by Caraid O’Brien
Dramaturgy by Aaron Beale
Directed by Jenny McConnell
February 14 – March 4, 2001

Helen Hayes Award Nomination:
Outstanding Costume Design

God of Vengeance was  a co-production with Theater J

“There is tension all over the place; the elegant marble floors and high ceilings of the lobby are at odds with the tawdriness of the set’s ratty furniture and Eric Grims’s purposefully dull lighting. The ambiance of the JCC, where faithful Judaism is implied by the very building, hardly squares with the screaming irreverence of the text.”
— Washington Post

In the Winter of 1906, Sholom Asch and a group of young writers gathered in the home of Y.L. Peretz, one of the founders of modern Yiddish literature, to read Asch’s first play, God Of Vengeance. Upon completing the read, Peretz turned to Asch and said, “Burn it.” The play continued to provoke controversy, culminating in its English-translated Broadway premiere in 1923 when its cast and producers were thrown in jail on obscenity charges.

Still intensely provocative in 2001, this new translation by Caraid O’Brien tells the story of a wealthy brothel owner who desperately tries to preserve his daughter’s purity. But the father’s sin runs deep and his daughter holds a dark secret…

PRODUCED BY Randy Baker, Jenny McConnell and Ari Roth
ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS Josh Ford and Caitlin Barille

FEATURING Lindsay Allen, Jon Cohn, Irv Jacobs, Caroline Kellogg, Danny Ladmirault, Scott McCormick, Tracy Olivera, Elizabeth Richards, Emerie Snyder and Yasmin Tuazon
DESIGNED BY Mark Anduss (Sound), Eileen E. Daly (Set and Props), Eric Grims (Lighting) Justine Light (Set and Costumes), Lucas Maroney (Set and Costumes) and Kate Kilbane (Stage Management)

Performed in the Smith Lobby of the DCJCC