NOW RUNNING

Bent

Written by Martin Sherman

Directed by Mark Prascak

At the Adams House Big Toe Theater

Through this weekend

GAY playwright Martin Sherman's Bent can be read as a parable for the anti-gay paranoia in this age of AIDS. (It is thus appropriate that this production's proceeds will go to a local AIDS action committee.) But its literal subject, the persecution of gays in Nazi Germany, stands up well enough on its own dramatically.

The three-hour Bent offers a harrowing depiction of the depths of human depravity. Veteran Harvard theatergoers may worry that such a play would be hard enough to sit through without the added trial of Mark Prascak's direction, given Prascak's string of unconventional adaptations. Such worries, however, are groundless. Prascak directs the play straight, on a stark, paint-splattered set, and lets the story--rather than his direction--come to the forefront.

The play focuses on Max (Paul D'Alessandris), who lives with Rudy (David Gammons) in 1930s Berlin. Once openly gay, Max and Rudy are forced by the newly homophobic climate to suppress their sexual selves, lest they be arrested for such a crime as holding hands in public. Eventually they are caught and sent to a concentration camp, where Max discovers it is even more dangerous to be branded with the pink triangle that signifies homosexuality than to wear the yellow star of the Jew. In order to adapt and survive, Max must betray Rudy and sacrifice his humanity, though in the second act he gets the chance to redeem himself through his blossoming relationship with Horst (Randall Lipton).

The actors, many of whom are not Harvard undergraduates, deliver inconsistent performances. Still, some of them, especially the pivotal D'Alessandris, successfully convey their characters' complexities. Few actors these days are willing to portray gay characters, so this troupe deserves commendation for its courage alone.

The actors also are not strong enough to provide the momentum to carry this play for a full three hours, until what had been challenging and shocking at the outset is no longer even interesting. But despite its potential for inaccessibility, Bent deserves to be seen for its story, which is as urgent now as it would have been 50 years ago.

OPENING THIS WEEK

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Written by T.S. Eliot

Directed by Todd Brun