Summary

This scene is titled “Staten Island: Asch and Madje Asch’s Home.” A slide indicates that the dialogue is in Yiddish (which means that to an audience, it sounds to an audience like perfect English). As Madje struggles to get Asch prepared to make a court appearance to speak on behalf of his play, he protests that there are more important things going on in the world. She tries to get him to speak of what he saw when he visited the sites of the pogroms, but he refuses, saying that nothing of his life before feels real. Madje urges him to get himself together, and at least talk to Lemml. Asch agrees to write a letter to the court, adding that he is desperate to “write something to change the way gentiles see us … or they will rip us out, root...