Bent

(Radek Jonak and Sam Haft ... forbidden lovers. Photo: Heidrun Lohr)

Germany's Third Reich rounded up gay men amongst the social and religious groups it sought to eradicate. 'Bent' tells the story of three of them, Max, Rudy and Horst. It is the first time I have seen this play which was written more than thirty years ago and I found it a bit of a mixed work.

Act 1 focuses on partners Max and Rudy in Berlin and the growing oppression of gays by the authorities and then to a forest near Cologne from where the pair is hoping to escape to Amsterdam. This Act did not excite me greatly, the characters being little more than stereotypes. I don't whether that was the fault of the play or this production.

Act 2 is set in Dachau Concentration Camp where Max is bribing his way to hoped for preferential treatment in the company of his emerging lover, Horst (the two characters in the photo). This Act is the stronger and more moving of the two.

The simple staging in the small confines of Belvoir Street's Downstairs Theatre is typical of its productions. I thought the actors portraying Max and Horst did a good job in Act 2 and stood out from the ensemble.

Apropos nothing other than to relate my latest near miss with fame, Cate Blanchett brushed past me last night with her husband Andrew Upton on their way to the Upstairs Theatre to see the highly regarded 'That Face'. Blanchett is as charismatic in passing as she is on stage and in film.