Customer Reviews

Bent: The Play

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

this book runs the gamut from joyous hedonism to the extreme visciousness of humankind. I cannot remember the last time I was so emotionally drawn in and captivated by such intelligent, breathing, living characters. This book is a powerful must read for anyone concerned with what makes humanity tick, and the absolute evil that seems so inherently possible. A love story that trancends all generations. This is proof that the human will is a miraculous thing.

If i could give it more stars i would. Two years ago I was fortunate enough to be a part of a production of this play. Everyone in the world knows of the treatment of the Jews in concentration camps during WWII. Little is known, however, of the treatment of homosexuals that lived and died next to Jews, political prisoners and criminals in these death camps. Martin Sherman sheds light onto this subject in this very chilling and in your face tale of love between two homosexuals in Dachau. You must read this play. It is very powerful and moving. It, along with the documentary Paragraph 175, has changed my life and the way I view alternative lifestyles past and present.
Do yourself a favor and buy this play. You won't regret it.

This is probably one of the most important plays I have ever read. It is just about love surviving in the harshest of places. Don't believe the other review about the characters not being developed enough. They are. And the play is amazing. I understand the importance of it in gay literature, but that is not the reason that I feel its important. I just think it needs to be read. The idea that we can tell a person not to love FOR ANY REASON is unnacceptable. Just read it. It may change your life.

Bent is a powerful play about the treatment of gays during the years that the Nazi powers controlled Germany. The play starts with two lovers who are arrested and sent to a concentration camp. There, one of the lovers dies. The survivor however continues to cling to an existence and meets another gay prisoner. They move rocks back and forth across a courtyard all day. The men fall in love, despite the fact that they are in a hopeless situation and are constantly guarded and watched as they gradually starve and are worked to death. The play shows us that love may emerge from the human spirit in even the most bleak of times and places. This drama is well written and very moving. It is an important piece of gay literature, dramatizing a terrible chapter in gay history that is often forgotten and hidden.

Opening in 1979 with Ian McKellen in London and then Richard Gere in New York, BENT told the seldom-heard story of the persecution of homosexuals under Nazi Germany. At the the time, the very notion that such had occurred at all was incredibly controversial, and many other persecuted groups stated that it was an insult to include homosexuals on the roster of the persecuted. But this actually proved a mere blip for BENT--historians backed author Martin Sherman on the point--and then and now the real controversy has had two points. BENT is easily one of the violent scripts to ever appear on the stage; moreover, its sexually graphic language, which might described as brutally frank, was and still is head-spinning for most audiences.

Set in 1930s Germany, the play follows the lives of three gay men. Max is wildly promiscuous, and much to the annoyance of his lover Rudy brings home an SA (Storm Trooper or Sturmabteilung) solider for the night. But it has been a bad choice: Hitler has ordered the Night of Long Knives, a purge of the SA; on the morning after, SS troops burst into the apartment and execute the SA solider. Now exposed as homosexual in a regime that has very suddenly turned against homosexuals, Max and Rudy go on the run, desperately seeking aid from friends and family and finding none. They are eventually picked up and Rudy is beaten to death. Max knows that homosexuals are considered the lowest of the low in the concentration camps. He steadfastly denies that he is homosexual and, through a genuinely horrible act, convinces his tormentors to give him a Jewish star instead of a homosexual pink triangle.

Once at the camp, Max becomes very guardedly friendly with Horst, a homosexual who wears a pink triangle who is treated viciously by Nazis and other prisoners alike. Over time Max, who has never been very deeply in love with anyone including the now-dead Rudy, falls in love with Horst--but they dare not make eye contact, dare not touch, can only speak without moving their lips. Horst upbraids Max for wearing the Jewish star instead of the homosexual pink triangle, but over time Max wins him over, and they begin an odd sort of affair, having sex with each other in their minds and through carefully uttered words. But this is at the height of the Nazi's dark powers. There will be no happy ending for anyone.

Over the years BENT has enjoyed numerous revivals, most often in the USA, England, and Australia, and most often in regional theatres than in Broadway or similar venues. And it remains as controversial as ever. As recently as 2009 a Texas production was targeted by an anti-homosexual, fundamentalist Christian group, forcing the theatre to close and move the play to a different venue. The play is indeed brutal and ugly, but it is also incredibly powerful and deeply moving, and it will no doubt remain so regardless of those who condemn it. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer
In Memory of Art Steinaway, a Gentleman

Even when only read from a script, this play is an astounding experience. It's full of information about the appalling conditions of homosexuals in the Holocaust and opens one's eyes to so much that was barely known before the play's release in 1979. The story is heartbreaking yet is a very rewarding read which holds the reader's attention from the first page to the very last. I recommend seeing the play and I'm sure the movie (which I have yet to see) is very good, but I highly recommend reading this unforgettable script also.

Beautiful piece of literature...full of tension, conflict, struggle and yes...love. This is a work you won't forget reading.

This enduring play is a gripping, fascinating view of a sumptuous alternative lifestyle rum amok. Torturing oppression and purification of the Nazi party and Secret Police rip and tear in to the decadent , wild , elegant "gay" world of late Weimar Republic Berlin. Imprisonment, abundant hypocrisy, betrayal and mutilation end up in a wild chase for freedom by Max, a "gay" socialite and his lover. After they are captured, Max's soul is destroyed by Nazi interrogation and his will to survive increases. The climax and resolution echo the power of faith, love and friendship after pain, Nazi manipulation and knotted value systems are stripped away. Great for studio acting classes, any level of production.

I enjoyed this play but I found it hard to feel much emotion for the characters because they were not developed enough in my opinion. The persecution of any group of people, whether Jewish, Gay, Gypsy, or others.. is horrible and should never be condoned. I am glad that this play was written. It sheds some light, however small, on the treatment of Gays by Nazis. More should be written on this topic!

It has been well over a month since I ordered this script, the audition has come and gone, oddly enough the script has yet to arrive!