JANUARY 28, 1994 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

17

ENTERTAINMENT

The human spirit survives unbroken in Bent

Bent

Oakland Theater

Reviewed by Charlton Harper Maybe the time is right for Bent, Martin Sherman's two act drama of one man caught in Hitler's purge of gays during the Holocaust. The success of Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List and the recent opening of a national Holocaust Museum would indicate a renewed public willingness to face the truth and the past. Bent offers a look at little-known gay history and an often sweptaside part of the Holocaust experience.

The play centers on Max, the quintessential queer in 1930's Berlin-artsy, decadent nightclub hound, estranged from his family and broke. He's a man given to satisfying his physical pleasures and unaware of the crumbling political climate around him. Rudy, his lover, is a flighty dancer, fussy about his house plants.

As Hitler consolidates his power, Berlin is no longer a safe haven for outcasts and known "fluffs" like Max and Rudy. When the SS raid Max's apartment, looking for Wolf, a casual trick that Max has brought home, it's time to leave. They hide in a tent city in the forest, waiting for help from Max's family to get them out of Germany. Their inevitable arrest and the death of Rudy leaves Max alone in Dachau, struggling to maintain his sanity and stay alive while denying the enormity of his fate.

It's hard to avoid expecting more from Sherman's drama. The play does succeed at firing the imagination and planting the need to know more. The death of 1,000,000 queers at the hands of Hitler is a glaring omission from the history books that Bent, a sparse two-act drama, can only hint at. But public

denial of historical fact contrasts well with the story of Max, a man so driven by denial that he tries to maintain his muscular body while a prisoner in one of Hitler's most notorious death camps.

Director Mike Hinge has kept the staging and design sparse, direct and text-centered. It's hard to like Max, a survivor who will make any deal in order to stay alive, including aiding the SS in their torture of Rudy and raping the corpse of a dead 13-year-old girl in order to prove his masculinity to the SS and receive the more desirable Star of David rather than the contemptible pink triangle. Rodd Coonce highlights Max's early flippancy and draws out the aloofness that separates him from the carnage of Dachau. Coonce believably captures Max's rise to human being, finally heroically accepting his identity and himself.

WISDATTER

Although speaking to other prisoners is prohibited, Horst (Tom O'Donnell, left) and Max

(Rod Coonce) two gay men in a Nazi death camp, manage to communicate anyway in the Oakland Theater's production of Bent.

Christopher Fidram is amazing as Rudy, whining and simpering, worrying about dancing on a cement floor, yet brave and resilient, able to survive the indignity of tent life while still dreaming of tomorrow. His death at the hands of Max is like watching the senseless drowning of a puppy. It won't be easy to rid myself of the image of Tom O'Donnell's skinny frame in the role of Horst, a prisoner who finally breaks through Max's shell and shows him love. A successful piece of casting. The second act, domi-

nated by Max and Horst and their Sisyphean task of moving a pile of rocks from one spot to another and back again, effectively plods and stumbles as the characters do themselves. Frank Horvatich manages the unenviable: his brief, first act strut in a leather jockstrap as Wolf is cut short by his murder, while his second act stint as a guard is a study in immobility.

The large, appreciative, “family”-filled audience was an impressive sign that Youngstown is ready for Bent.

Final performances run through this weekend, January 28-29 at the Oakland Theater in Youngstown. Call 746-0404 for ticket information.

HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN FUND

1994 DINNER DANCE

COME OUT FOR EQUALITY!

A fundraising event for the Human Rights Campaign Fund-the organization that leads the fight at the federal level for lesbian and gay equality

Human Rights

CAMPAIGN FUND

Saturday, February 26, 1994 6:30 p.m. 1:00 a.m

Women's Reception at 6:00 p.m.

Dinner at Sammy's Metropolitan East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue Black tie optional

Huntington Building, 21st floor Cleveland, Ohio

TICKETS: $100 DINNER, $150 DINNER & OPEN BAR

CALL 216/283-0362 FOR RESERVATIONS AND INFORMATION