Bent (play)

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Stage work
Original title: Bent
Author: Martin Sherman
Premiere: May 3rd 1979
Place: London
Theatre: Royal Court Theater
Original language: English

Bent is a play by Martin Sherman, premiered in 1979. It addresses the persecution of homosexuals during National Socialism (see also Homosexuality during the National Socialism ). The author also wrote the script for the1997 film ofthe same name .

The title of the piece uses the colloquial expression bent , which on the one hand denotes homosexuals in some European countries and on the other hand can mean “broken” (in the sense of a “broken hero”).

At the time of the first performance of the play, there was little scholarly and public attention for the persecution of homosexuals in the Third Reich. The drama contributed to greater public and research awareness of the topic.

Ian McKellen played the leading role in the premiere at London's West End Theater in 1979 , Richard Gere played the protagonist in the first Broadway version in 1980. A theatrical version was made in 1997, directed by Sean Mathias. The German-language premiere was shown in 1980 under the title "Bent - Rosa Winkel" at the Mannheim National Theater . In 2017, in cooperation with the author, Olaf Roth's new translation was created, which was performed for the first time on October 6, 2017 in the Göttingen Theater in the OP .

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The homosexual Max lives with his friend Rudy in Berlin in the 1930s. Max, a promiscuous bon vivant, brings an SA man home one night . That very night, of all times, the so-called “ Röhm Putsch ” took place, in which Hitler had numerous SA men murdered in order to consolidate his power. The man in Max and Rudy's apartment is also discovered and murdered by the Gestapo , and the two have to flee. On the run, Max and Rudy are seized by the Gestapo and taken by train to the Dachau concentration camp .

When Rudy is beaten up by the SS on the train , Max denies that he knows him and follows the request to beat Rudy until he dies. Later he confessed to a fellow prisoner that he had molested a dead girl under the eyes of the SS to prove that he was not gay. He hopes to have higher chances of survival in the concentration camp by being categorized as a Jew.

In the camp he falls in love with his fellow inmate Horst, who at first only hesitantly, but later completely reciprocates his love. Horst repeatedly accuses Max of not standing by his identity and wrongly wearing the Star of David . Rather, Max should wear the " pink triangle ", the symbol of homosexual prisoners. Only when Horst is shot in front of his eyes does Max decide to openly show his homosexuality by covering Horst's jacket with the "pink triangle" and committing suicide a little later .

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  1. ↑ Keith Stern / CompuWeb: BENT (1979) with Ian McKellen. Retrieved October 25, 2017 .
  2. ↑ THEATER: Rosa Winkel . In: Der Spiegel . No. 17 , 1980 ( online - 21 April 1980 ).
  3. ↑ http://www.jussenhoven-fischer.de/pages/news
  4. ↑ http://www.goettinger-tageblatt.de/Kultur/Regional/Bent-thematisiert-im-Theater-im-OP-Goettingen-Verlung-Homosexueller-in-der-NS-Zeit