Bent, a drama written by Martin Sherman, was first brought to the stage in 1979. Based on the testimony The Men with the Pink Triangles by concentration camp survivor Hans Heger it tells of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals. In 1979 this subject was new and unexplored and therefore raised a lot of eyebrows. 27 years later the play’s message is as relevant now as it ever has been.

Alan Cumming plays Max, a spoiled gay man working in a night club in Berlin in the 1930s. With boyfriend Rudy he is used to a life of excess. It is all torn away on the The Night of the Long Knives when Adolf Hitler made a move that would not only wipe out all his political rivals but was the beginning of the end for many, including Max and Rudy. Captured, tortured and forced to kill his boyfriend the true story is in the concentration camp where Max, who at first would rather pretend to be Jewish with a yellow star than a gay man with a pink triangle, eventually finds true love with fellow inmate Horst, played by newcomer Chris New, and also pride in who he is despite his surrounds.

The contrast between the decadant and almost light hearted first scenes of Max waking up after a hard night of partying, dressed in a flashy kimono wondering how he managed to get bruises on his bottom (perhaps it was from his storm trooper lover who spends the first scene butt-naked (!) chasing him around his lounge room), and the rest of the play was startling. You are taken immediately from a humorous beginning to knowing some of the true depravities of the Nazi regime. It is at once depressing and saddening to see.

So, it is not exactly a happy tale yet you are drawn into the drama. Admittedly there are moments in the play when it becomes too much and I lost my concentration but overall the quality of the writing and the acting was top notch so it wasn’t hard to get back into it.

At the end of the show we were treated to the privilege of having a Q&A session with Alan Cumming, Chris New, Martin Sherman, the writer, and Daniel Kramer, the director. I was amazing at how giving all of them where with their responses and they even extended the session when they saw how keen some of the audience members were. Alan Cumming especially was very gracious with his answers and, although he was fab in the play, I was probably most impressed by his performance during the Q&A.