Bent (play)

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Poster for the Royal National Theatre production of Bent

Bent is a 1979 play (which starred Ian McKellen in its original West-End production, Richard Gere in its original Broadway production) by Martin Sherman that was adapted into a 1997 movie by director Sean Mathias. It revolves around the persecution of gay people in Third Reich Germany after the murder of Sturmabteilung leader Ernst Röhm. The play is based on The Men with the Pink Triangles, the testimony of camp survivor Hans Heger.

The word "bent" is occasionally a slang term for homosexuality in some European countries.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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 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.

Max's uncle Freddie (Richard Gale in the West-End production, George Hall in the Broadway play 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 a Jew, as opposed to a homosexual. He does this because he believes survival in the camp will be easier if he does not belong to the lowest-regarded (i.e., the pink triangle-wearing) group of inmates.

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 is shot by camp guards, Max puts on Horst's jacket with the pink triangle and commits suicide by grabbing an electric fence.

Spoilers end here.

Bent tries to show that homosexuality always runs through all classes of society and that it would be incorrect to exclusively assign the role of victims to the homosexuals of that time. 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 is bent on surviving 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.

The play is currently being revived and will be put on at Trafalgar Studios in the fall, with Alan Cumming as Max.