Bent

Having decided to shun live music in favour of cabaret, this weekend I thought I might try embracing the world of theatre. Proper theatre, I mean, with actors and stuff, not just drag comedy. So I invested my pink pounds in a matinee ticket for Bent.

When I first got to the theatre I remembered what annoys me so much about these places - everything is in miniature. There's the little tiny bar with the miniscule toilets and nowhere to put your stuff while you wash your hands. Then inside there's the teeny weeny seats that would only comfortably seat a party of three year olds. I felt myself turning just a tad sizeist as the place was filling up - "please God, don't let the big fat woman with the shopping bags be next to me ..."

As soon as the show started, my irritation evaporated as I found myself laughing and smiling along with Alan Cumming, as lead character Max, and his boyfriend Rudy (Kevin Trainor) who minced around and camped it up on stage in all manner of tomfoolery.

Their playfulness is disturbed by the arrival of Wolf, a well-hung blonde that Max picked up the night before when he was drunk. He is just through explaining to Wolf that he isn't really the wealthy aristocrat with the country home he claimed to be the night before, when the door is broken down by Nazi soldiers who murder Wolf and trash the apartment as Max and Rudy take fear and run for their lives.

They stop off to visit Greta, a local drag queen, who advises them to go on the run, so when next we meet them they are living rough in a nearby forest. Max gets a visit from his Uncle Freddie, a closeted gay who tells Max he should have done what he did - got married and had kids while paying for rent boys on the side. He also offers Max a ticket so he can escape to Amsterdam, but Max refuses to leave unless Rudy can go too.

Before Freddie can make a decision on whether to return with another ticket, the Nazi soldiers burst through the forest and Max and Rudy are captured. The next scene has them on a train being transported to Dachau.

I hate to admit it, but the Nazis are kind of impressive. They’re nasty little buggers but they have the fiercest uniforms and well, um, they kind of made me laugh. I read a review that criticises this production for the way the Nazis are portrayed - that their behaviour is treated more as farce than crime and the edge is taken off their actions. It’s a valid point, they do come across as lovable scamps.

So anyway, the Nazis pick on Rudy because he wears glasses, they take him aside and beat him senseless. In the meantime, Max is talking to another prisoner who is wearing a pink triangle on his shirt. He explains the way the Nazis classify their prisoners - a pink triangle for queer, a green one for criminals, a yellow star for Jews etc. The pink triangle is the lowest, and the man advises Max that if he wants to stay alive he should ignore Rudy's cries and pretend he doesn't know him.

The Nazis return and Rudy lies on the floor bleeding. The soldiers ask Max if this is his friend. He replies "no." The soldiers give him a truncheon and insist that he beats Rudy in the stomach. At first he resists but soon weakens and beats Rudy into unconsciousness. He dies moments later.

At the concentration camp in Dachau, Max emerges wearing a yellow star on his shirt. He soon runs into pink triangle man from the train, who introduces himself as Horst. Horst is disgusted that Max struck a deal with the soldiers to allow him to be branded a Jew, he insists that Max should face up to being queer and wear the pink triangle with pride. Max bleats pathetically that he just wants to stay alive.

As the two work side by side a close friendship develops and they become virtual lovers. They can have sex only using words, they can't touch each other as the guards are always watching. Day after day they shift rocks from one side of the yard to another, while trying to preserve their sanity. Horst maintains his disgust at Max's refusal to come out.

Finally the guards descend and try to force Horst to walk into an electric fence. He refuses and tries to attack the guard, but is shot dead and Max is ordered to dispose of the body.

A tear-jerking scene follows as Max says goodbye to his friend and thinks back to Rudy, choking that he can’t actually remember his name. He throws Horst’s body into the pit but returns a few minutes later to remove his pink triangle shirt and put it on. Big tears ran down my face at this final moment of pride and defiance before Max takes hold of the electric fence and fries.

Joan Dairy Queen saw this last month and says he’s sick of the gays and wishes they’d stop whinging. But I don’t think I’ll ever tire of a good “us against them” drama. They make me feel proud and emotional and increase my sense of belonging.