The Stage

Bent

Published Friday 9 July 2010 at 10:56 by Jeremy Austin

When this production of Martin Sherman’s powerful story of a young gay man’s incarceration under the Nazis was performed at the Landor Theatre earlier this year it sold out, garnered great praise and won a best fringe actor nomination for Russell Morton.

All that is well deserved. Sherman’s play is claustrophobic at the best of times, as two outgoing young gay men try to escape Nazi persecution. But here designer Freya Groves encases the small stage in barbed wire with two swastikas hanging down, forcing the audience into an even greater intimacy with the main protagonists.

Director Andrew Keates allows his cast to initially play with the campery of youth. The indulgence of lovers Max and Rudy, almost finding enjoyment in their misery, is allowed, giving far greater emphasis to the crushing tragedy to come.

Morton, as Max, is excellent. Sometimes the complete immersion he gives to the character has to battle against Sherman’s occasionally stylised script. Where some of the other cast struggle to rise above the constraints of the rhythm, Morton flows through. He finds the love, the pain and the hopelessness that his character endures.

Rudy can be a little tiring, but Steven Butler emphasises his youth, allowing him to get away with his excesses. As a rough, Scouse Horst, Max’s Dachau love, David Flynn creates an effective counterpoint to the more effete Max. The tenderness beneath the brash exterior lends the energy needed for the show’s end.