Bent (play)

Play by Martin Sherman

Bent (sometimes stylised as BENT) is a 1979 British American play by Martin Sherman. It revolves around the persecution of gays in Nazi Germany, and takes place during and after the Night of the Long Knives. The title of the play refers to the slang word "bent" used in some European countries to refer to homosexuals. When the play was first performed, there was only a trickle of historical research or even awareness about the Nazi persecution of homosexuals. In some regards, the play helped increase that historical research and education in the 1980s and 1990s.

Maximilian Berber (Max), 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 Rudolph Hennings (Rudy), he brings home a handsome Sturmabteilung man, Wolfgang Granz (Wolf). Unfortunately, it is the night that Hitler orders the assassination of the upper echelon of the Sturmabteilung corps, to consolidate his power. Wolf is discovered the next morning and killed by SS men in Max and Rudy's apartment, and the two have to flee their home. They seek counsel from Rudy's boss Greta. Greta is a drag queen; she ran her own gay club, which is newly shut down (implicitly due to, at the time, new Paragraph 175 enforcements). Greta explains that the SS approached her for information about Wolf, and that she took them to Max and Rudy's apartment. She officially fires Rudy and hands Max the finder's fee she earned from the SS. They leave the club and Berlin behind. Max's uncle Freddie, who is also gay, but lives a more discreet life with rent boys to satisfy his desires, has organized new papers for Max to flee to France where homosexuality is legal, but Max refuses to leave Rudy behind. As a result, Max and Rudy are found in a forest tent colony and arrested by the Gestapo. They are forced to board a train headed for Dachau concentration camp. On the train, Rudy is spotted wearing glasses by an officer. The officer makes Rudy crush his glasses, and then orders Rudy to be taken, presumably to be killed for his poor eyesight. Rudy is beaten within an inch of his life, all the while Max tries to ignore his screams. Another prisoner on the train, wearing a pink triangle patch, explains the patch system during the Holocaust to Max and tells Max that he must show no sentiment towards Rudy. The officer has Rudy taken back to Max and coerces Max to beat Rudy to death. Max is taken by the guards and lies to them, telling them that he is a Jew rather than a homosexual, because he believes his chances for survival in the camp will be better if he is not assigned the pink triangle. Max later confesses, to the same prisoner from the train, that the guards then forced him to have intercourse with the body of a dead pre teen girl to "prove" he was not homosexual. That prisoner reveals their name is Horst. In the camp, Max makes friends with Horst, who shows him the dignity that lies in acknowledging what one is. They fall in love and become lovers through their imagination and through their words. After Horst is shot by camp guards, Max puts on Horst's jacket with the pink triangle and commits suicide by grabbing an electric fence.

Bent premiered in London in 1979 at the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square, London, the production later transferring to the West End. Ian McKellen played Max and Tom Bell played Horst.

In 1997, Sherman adapted Bent into a film of the same name, directed by Sean Mathias. The film featured Clive Owen as Max, Lothaire Bluteau as Horst, and Ian McKellen as Freddie.