Recent victories in gay rights make the events depicted in the stage drama Bent that much more chilling. The fact that Nazi Germany had a hierarchy of undesirables at all is disturbing enough. Gays were evidently at the bottom of that list...considered to be beneath Jews. So naturally, they didn’t get treated all that well.
World’s Stage Theatre takes a look back on a time and place when and where the wrong sexual preference could get someone killed by the government. (Granted, there are still places like this now I’m sure...something I wish to remain blissfully ignorant about for the time being. It's been a particularly rough period in world news lately.) Kirk Thomsen plays Max. Max is in a relationship with Rudy. After a passionate night involving an SA trooper, Max and Rudy are chased down by the government. Things get worse from there in a nightmare vision from the dark end of last century. Thomsen is capable of a stark intensity when paired with the right drama. Nate Press plays a prisoner taken to Dachau with Max. Press has shown great talent for both comedy and drama. His appearance here recalls work he’d done with Theatrical Tendencies some time ago in a very memorable dramatic production.
World Stage Theatre’s production of Bent runs Jul. 10-19 at the Tenth Street Theatre on 628 N. 10th St. For ticket reservations, visit Brown Paper Tickets online.
