Bent is a devastating and deeply human story that lingers long after you finish it, and this release feels less like a new experience and more like a powerful reminder of just how heavy and necessary it is. Martin Sherman doesn’t pull away from the brutality of its setting during the Holocaust, but what resonates most is the fragile, defiant love at its core and the way identity is both suppressed and reclaimed. Revisiting it brings a renewed appreciation for its emotional weight and the quiet moments of connection that cut through the darkness, making it feel just as urgent and heartbreaking as ever.

Bent by Martin Sherman is an unflinching look at identity and the impact of the Third Reich on the LGBTQ+ community in 1930s Berlin. This gut-wrenching play feels more timely than ever given the current state of affairs for marginalized communities during the rise of Christian Nationalism in the States. Bent follows our main character, Max, as he escapes Berlin with his boyfriend, only to be arrested in the countryside and taken to Dachau. I don't want to spoil any major plot beats, but this is a brutal but crucially important read due to the subject matter. I would love to see this performed live someday after reading it, once I emotionally recover.

With an excellent foreword by Sally Mears that provides further context for the play, this is an excellent edition and not one to miss. Thank you to NetGalley and Amber Lane Press for providing me with an ARC for review.

Bent, by Martin Sherman, is a play written in 1979. Before AIDS, but after Stonewall, Sherman explores WWII through the eyes of gay men in Berlin and then into the concentration camps. There is repeated attention drawn to the pink triangles that homosexuals wear on their prison uniforms, which signified their queerness but also was a signal to all those as to how they would be treated, worse than anyone else there. Because even in the concentration camps, there was a hierarchy. I hated that this text has to exist, but I’m glad they are publishing it with an important and necessary introductory text. 5/5

Quick read that really packs a punch. I cared about all the characters and their arcs. Author builds a world that you know but might not have known this side of the Holocaust.

Bent by Martin Sherman, given to me by Amber Lane Press and NetGalley is a wonderfully-delivered play that shines a spotlight on just how awful recent history can be.

Set, pretty much when Cabaret the movie ends, or in other words, Berlin, 1934, the club depicted in this play is still just about open, but it’s about to have its hinges blown off with the careless Berlin that everyone knew and loved beforehand about to be gone with the wind. Max, our protagonist, is about to discover that his life of wild abandonment is about to be rudely uprooted, alongside all the others - Wolf, Rudy and the real-life Horst, a character used wonderfully as a cipher for the realities of falling out of favour in Nazi Germany. As the introduction points out, the reader is about to be taken into the heart of what it was like to be part of the least-desired group, the pink triangle club... and it’s not for sissies.

The economy of scale here with words, pacing and what is being relayed to the reader is excellent. Unlike most plays, no character really gets a long, drawn-out monologue. This is history delivered starkly and abruptly with rapid, quick-fire dialogue to showcase that life could turn on a dime.

It’s got some gruesome elements that will forever shock, which is why I can’t give 5 stars, but for an historical play, this really must be protected - and read - at all costs. Profound, truly profound.