Billy Cohen and Malka Wallick in ‘Indecent.’ Photo by Jessica Palopoli Vogel’s play is a somewhat meta-theatrical biography recounting Polish-Jewish author Sholem Asch (Billy Cohen) and the circumstances surrounding his controversial Yiddish-language play Got fun nekome (God of Vengeance). Despite its heavy subject matter, Indecent is a celebration-of Judaism, theatre, and the intersection of the two. The joy came from Vogel’s script, Damilano’s direction, and the performances of her collaborators. “Safe” because, despite Poodle Woman, every other vax-checked patron kept their mask on and the CO² readings of my Aranet4 peaked at 562ppm, despite it being a packed house at a two-hour show with no intermission. I mention these pet peeves at the offset because the opening night of Paula Vogel’s Indecent (through November 5 at SF Playhouse) was otherwise an enjoyable and safe night of theatre. (Granted, the dog didn’t make a sound, but the combo of the dog and not-masking was very “walk amongst the peasants.”)

The pandemic is very much not “over.” The second thing that irked me was an older, affluent woman in the row behind me: She never wore a mask and had a poodle in her lap the entire show. The first was show director-executive director-co-founder Susi Damilano claiming that “we are gradually coming back from the pandemic,” especially when she and AD/co-founder Bill English were masked, and numbers show we’re in for another rough autumn-winter surge.

There were two things that irked me ahead of the first show of SF Playhouse’s 20 th season, both of which were relatively minor.

Indecent by paula vogel script