BENT - Mark Taper Forum — Page 3

The only nudity is in the first 5 minutes. When the sexist guy wakes up and walks around naked and his penis is so huge. That's it. And you WILL get turned on by the 'sex scene' in act 2. So don't be late.

**** SPOILERS ****

Aside from the nudity, there is throat slashing, whipping, and screaming from torture offstage. There is graphic description of necrophilia. But amidst all that are unexpected bursts of humor.

Updated On: 7/28/15 at 08:14 PM

As someone who was incredibly impressed by the broadway production back in '79, I thought the play at the Taper the other night was every bit its equal if not better.

Superb acting across the board, though special mention must go to... (no not Tom Berklund, you nitwits)... Charlie Hofheimer, who's astonishing portrayal of Horst in Act II moves the play to a whole other level of richness.

Great staging and superb design work by Beowulf Boritt working with the most basic tools to bring us to the core of the story. The final image onstage surpasses anything in the original broadway design. Utterly simple and devastating.

For all that, I've gotta say that the script can sometimes be a strange animal-- all sitcom jollity in scene I, then the radical about-face in tone that leads inexorably to Dachau. By Act II the dialogue has turned abstract and almost Becket-like in its rhythms and repetitions. But boy, those two scenes that stand in for love scenes that anchor Act II-- Just spectacular writing married to brilliant delivery. Anyone within a 100 mile radius of the Mark Taper should be here to see what theater can be like at its absolute best.

Updated On: 7/28/15 at 09:57 PM

Official trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7DDbsE_3eQ