Bent

Synopsis

Bent follows one man's journey from the hedonistic cabarets and clubs of 1930's Berlin to the inhuman excesses of an oppressive regime. When Max falls in love with a fellow prisoner he discovers the true meaning of love and self-acceptance against impossible odds.

Our Review:

13 July 2010

When Bent was first performed in 1979, the details of Nazi persecution of homosexuals were relatively unknown, and although the play was instrumental in increasing the research into the subject, it remains somewhat obscure today. This adds to, but certainly doesn’t account for, the enduring impact of Martin Sherman’s brutal yet touching, devastating yet hopeful play.

Set in Nazi Germany during and in the aftermath of The Night of the Long Knives, Bent follows Max as he moves from the permissive, seedy decadence of the Berlin club scene to the bleak confines of Dachau, a concentration camp for Jews, political activists and homosexuals.

Max (Russell Morton) is promiscuous, hedonistic and openly gay and when the play begins he is living with his lover, Rudy (Steven Butler), a plant loving dancer who works at a Berlin ‘queer club’. When Max picks up a condemned SA man he and Rudy become entangled in the political purge and are pursue...

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