About the Play:

Bent has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Male/Male Scenes.

Bent was one of Royal National Theatre of Britain's top 100 plays of the 20th century.

Bent is a full-length drama by Martin Sherman. A tragic love story set in a Nazi concentration camp in the 1930s, Bent follows the journey of Max, a young gay man from Berlin, who learns to accept himself and to love in the face of horrific and impossible odds. One of the most significant plays of the 20th century, Bent sheds light on the widely untold history of the persecution of gay men during the Holocaust.

Bent is set during and after the Night of the Long Knives and deals with the persecution of gay men during the Holocaust. In 1934 Berlin on the eve of the Nazi incursion, Max, a privileged, dissolute grifter and his dancer lover Rudy are recovering from a night of debauchery with a stormtrooper. Two soldiers burst into the apartment and slit their guest's throat, beginning a nightmare odyssey through Nazi Germany. Ranked lower on the human scale than Jews, the men as avowed homosexuals, flee. Desperate and on the run, Max asks his own "discreetly" gay Uncle Freddie for help as the older man offers little more than suggestions on how to live, as he does, practising homosexuality on the side. Attempting their escape, Rudy is beaten to death as Horst, another gay prisoner, warns Max to deny his lover. Taken to a death camp at Dachau, Max and Horst branded with the "Pink Triangle", hope to survive with each other for comfort and courage but it is not to be. Bent was and remains a landmark in the long fight for gay rights. It's an uncompromising engagement with the fate of the "Pink Triangles": the gay men named after the badge they were forced to wear when deported to concentration camps in Nazi Germany.

Bent premiered in 1979 at Royal Court Theatre and transferred to the West End starring Ian McKellen as Max (a character written with the actor in mind). Richard Gere played the role of Max on Broadway where Bent was nominated for Pulitzer Prize and a Tony for Best Play in 1980 and won the Dramatists Guild's Hull-Warriner Award. This worldwide hit has has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and been seen in over 40 countries and translated into at least 21 different languages.

Cast: 11 male

What people say:

"Powerful and provocative." — New York Times

"Brilliant… an explosive, overpowering experience." — Women's Wear Daily

About the Playwright:

Martin Sherman is an American playwright and screenwriter best known for his 20 stage plays which have been produced in over sixty countries. He rose to fame in 1979 with the production of his Pulitzer Prize-nominated play Bent, which explores the Nazi persecution of gay men during the Holocaust. He has been nominated for two Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards and two BAFTA awards.