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Bent

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Pub Date Feb 20 2026 | Archive Date Not set

A | Amber Lane Press


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Description

Sent to Dachau for being gay, Max declines to wear the pink triangle. Instead, he claims a yellow star, believing Jewish prisoners may be treated with a fraction more mercy. In a camp built to strip men of identity and hope, survival becomes an act of daily defiance. There, Max renews his friendship with Horst – a fellow prisoner who wears his pink triangle with pride. As brutality closes in, an unexpected love takes hold, challenging Max’s fear and self-denial. In a place designed to erase dignity, love becomes his rebellion, giving him the courage to finally claim his true self. (Cast 11+m)

Bent took London by storm when it was first seen at the Royal Court Theatre, London, starring Ian McKellen and Tom Bell. It transferred via the Criterion Theatre to Broadway, where it received a Tony nomination for Best Play and won The Dramatists’ Guild Hull-Warriner Award. In 1990 Sean Mathias directed a National Theatre revival of the play, followed by a film version starring Mick Jagger, Jude Law, Ian McKellen and Clive Owen. 2006 saw a new West End production by Daniel Kramer, starring Alan Cumming and Chris New. The play has now been performed in 60 countries.

Sent to Dachau for being gay, Max declines to wear the pink triangle. Instead, he claims a yellow star, believing Jewish prisoners may be treated with a fraction more mercy. In a camp built to strip...


Advance Praise

“This is an important play… ‘Bent,’ is powerful, thought-provoking theater, and it should not be missed.”

– New York Times

“A heroic myth … It has the laughter which Yeats asserted lay at the heart of tragedy.”

~ John Elsom, The Listener

“Fascinating … a work of considerable dignity and passion”

~ Michael Billington, The Guardian

“Undeniably powerful”

~ Sunday Express

“Sherman’s truthful and shattering love story”

~ Time Out

“Sherman dramatises the journey to oblivion of Max, a young gay German, from the morning after a hedonistic night of sex and cocaine in 1934 to Dachau … Bent looks now [in 1999] like a tremendous post-war theatre classic.”

~ Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard

“This is an important play… ‘Bent,’ is powerful, thought-provoking theater, and it should not be missed.”

– New York Times

“A heroic myth … It has the laughter which Yeats asserted lay at the heart...


Marketing Plan

Talks for LGBTQI+ history month with the author

To coincide with the film 'A friend of Dorothy' now Oscar nominated which features the original edition

Talks for LGBTQI+ history month with the author

To coincide with the film 'A friend of Dorothy' now Oscar nominated which features the original edition


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781738476916
PRICE £10.99 (GBP)
PAGES 80

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