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Bent (play)
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Bent is a 1979 play by Martin Sherman (which starred Ian McKellen in its original West-End production and Richard Gere in its original Broadway production) that was later adapted into a 1997 movie by director Sean Mathias. It revolves around the persecution of gay men in Third Reich Germany after the murder of Sturmabteilung leader Ernst Röhm.
When the play was first performed, there was only a small trickle of historical research or even awareness about the Nazi persecution of homosexuals or their destruction of the Institute For Sexual Science.
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Encyclopedia
Bent is a 1979 play by Martin Sherman (which starred Ian McKellen in its original West-End production and Richard Gere in its original Broadway production) that was later adapted into a 1997 movie by director Sean Mathias. It revolves around the persecution of gay men in Third Reich Germany after the murder of Sturmabteilung leader Ernst Röhm.
When the play was first performed, there was only a small trickle of historical research or even awareness about the Nazi persecution of homosexuals or their destruction of the Institute For Sexual Science. In some regards, the play helped increase that trickle in historical research and education in the 1980s and 1990s.
The title of the play and subsequent film was chosen because the word "bent" is occasionally a slang term for homosexuality in some European countries.
Plot
Max (played by Clive Owen in the film), a promiscuous gay man in 1930s Berlin, is at odds with his wealthy family because of his homosexuality. One evening, much to the resentment of his boyfriend Rudy (Brian Webber), he brings home a handsome SA man. Unfortunately, Hitler has just decided to get rid of the Sturmabteilung, which was noted (in the sense of defamed) for the same-sex inclinations among its ranks. The Sturmabteilung man is discovered and killed by SS men in Max and Rudy's apartment and the two have to flee Berlin, after encountering a drag performer played by Mick Jagger.
Max's uncle Freddie (Richard Gale in the West-End production, George Hall on Broadway and Ian McKellen in the film), who is also gay, but lives a more discreet life with rent boys to satisfy his desires, has organized new papers for Max, but Max refuses to leave his naïve boyfriend behind. As a result, Max and Rudy are found and arrested by the Gestapo and put on a train headed for Dachau concentration camp.
On the train, Rudy is beaten to death by the guards and, as he calls out to Max when he is taken away, Max is forced to have sex with a dead girl to "prove" he is not homosexual. Max has lied to the guards, telling them that he is a Jew. He believes his chances for survival in the camp will be better if he is not assigned the pink triangle.
In the camp, Max makes friends with Horst (Tom Bell in the West-end play, David Dukes in the Broadway production and Lothaire Bluteau in the Film), who shows him the dignity that lies in acknowledging what one is. After Horst dies (when a guard orders him to the electric fence), Max puts on Horst's jacket with the pink triangle and commits suicide by grabbing the fence as well.
Bent tries to show that homosexuality always runs through all classes of society and that not all homosexuals were victims during the war. While many gay people who were too poor (like Horst) or too naïve (like Rudy) ended up in concentration camps, others used their money (like Uncle Freddie) or their power (like the concentration camp commandant or some of the German officers) to stay out of harm's way.
Max occupies a middle spot in this spectrum between resistance and collaboration, as initially he tries to survive against all odds and perhaps later even escaping the camp, but during the play / movie he undergoes a transition because of Horst's influence and realizes one cannot always change one's luck through sheer willpower.
The play was the first time that popular culture had acknowledged the fact that the gay men were victims of the Holocaust , and helped pave the way for more historical research and documentaries to be released about the fate of homosexuals under Nazi Germany.
Revivals
Altera Vitae Productions of Montreal (Canada) will be presenting in November 2009.
Bent will make its Cincinnati debut at New Stage Collective in March 2009.
A revival of the play was at Trafalgar Studios in London in December 2006, with Alan Cumming as Max.
The most recent New York production of Bent took place at the 13th Street Repertory Company. Directed by Joshua Chase Gold, and starring Ryan Nicholoff as Max and Jim Halloran as Horst, the production was received to great reviews and sold out audiences.
Successful recent revivals include the Meta.for Theatre production at Performance Works in Vancouver, B.C., starring Sean Cummings as Max and Thrasso Petras as Horst.
External links
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