Interview with Martin Sherman Author of 'Bent'

Zeitgeist Theatre Company has a mission to produce the most influential gay plays of the last half-century. They began last year with their production of "The Normal Heart," which won two Elliot Norton Awards and three IRNEs. Artistic Director David Miller says he plans to carry on the tradition.

This season they are producing Martin Sherman's 1979 Holocaust drama "Bent." The play fits Zeitgeist's objective; the original Broadway production was nominated for four Drama Desk Awards and two Tonys, won the Dramatists Guild's Hull-Warriner Award and was a contender for the Pulitzer Prize. But in terms of the way it brought gay lives on stage into the mainstream, this play holds substantially more importance.

The play begins in Berlin after the Weimar Republic, and tells the story of Max, who lives a pretty hedonistic gay lifestyle within the structure of his committed relationship. When events bring him to a concentration camp in Dachau, he would rather pretend to be Jewish than admit he is gay. But a relationship he forms there permanently changes the way he views both intimacy and identity.

Though Sherman is both openly gay and Jewish, "Bent" was controversial because of its violence and its assertion that gay people received worse treatment than Jews during the Holocaust. Nonetheless, it has been popular. To date it has been produced in 60 countries, made into a major motion picture and even translated into a ballet in Brazil.

As a great admirer of his work, I talked to Martin Sherman about "Bent" and about his history of creating drama.

EDGE: After earning your BFA in dramatic arts at Boston University, you joined the Actors Studio where you studied under the legendary director Harold Clurman. What was that like?

Sherman: I didn't really study under Harold Clurman. He ran The Actors Studio Playwright's Unit at times when I was there. At other times it was Lee Strasberg, whom I found, contrary to his reputation, more practical and less theoretical. Attending Strasberg's acting and directing units were more important to my development. I think it more important for a dramatist to study acting than playwriting. We are not writing literature nor are we writing to be read; we are writing to be acted on a stage.

EDGE: What does it mean to write for actors rather than for directors and critics?

Sherman: It is essential to know what an actor needs in a scene, how an actor can motivate a scene, how an actor can make a scene work. Otherwise it can just (sometimes) be blah, blah, blah; often dazzling blah, blah, blah, but still.... Actors have always been my great champions, and I owe my career to them.

EDGE: In the 1970s, you traveled to London where you worked with the founding members of the infamous Gay Sweatshop. Help me understand the Gay Sweatshop. What was that? What was it like to be part of that? What was your mission and what did you accomplish?

Sherman: The Gay Sweatshop was created (in London) in what was essentially a different world. Gay characters rarely appeared in a play, and if they did, they were camp stereotypes or wallowed in self-inflected misery.

The Sweatshop wanted to correct this, whilst adhering not just to good intentions, but the highest professional standards. It promised it would cease to exist when change fully came about, and when it did, the Sweatshop gracefully departed.

I don't think any of the original members of the Sweatshop ever really thought that day would arrive, but of course, it came relatively quickly, thanks, in some part, to the Sweatshop itself. As a collective they were very much like the gay group portrayed in 'Pride'. It's a superior film, resonant and honest, which I would urge everyone to see.

My play 'Passing By' was presented by the Sweatshop in their first season, and their support and faith and artistic integrity saved my life as a dramatist. Well, probably saved my life, period. They inspired me to write 'Bent.'

EDGE: Why do you think 'Bent' has achieved the wide spread success it has? Are you particularly fond of it or do you have other plays you like better?

Sherman: I'm really not the person to ask about the success of 'Bent.' I wrote it originally thinking it would be performed by the Sweatshop in a tiny theatre in London; I had no idea that it would very quickly be on the West End and Broadway and, subsequently, in over sixty countries.

That all came as a profound shock, and, in a sense, it still does. Only its audiences can tell you why it has so mattered to them. I am particularly fond of it, not least because it is responsible for my entire subsequent career and life.

But plays are like your children; you hopefully love them all. I have a special affection for some of my later plays, especially 'When She Danced' and 'Some Sunny Day,' which I think are my best, most subtle, and most daring work, and 'Gently Down The Stream,' because I have just written it, and you always love the late-born and unexpected baby.

And thankfully, thankfully, I do think my writing has improved as I have aged, but 'Bent' has a visceral punch that is hard to replicate. It is not, however, my most popular play; that would be 'Rose,' which is rarely performed in America, but is constantly revived throughout Europe. In fact, aside from 'Bent' most of my work is unknown in America.

EDGE: How does Berlin's gay scene in 'Bent' relate to the gay scene in the United States in the 1970s?

Sherman: The gay scene in the United States in the 70s was exceptionally hedonistic and had the illusion of freedom. But there is no freedom when legally you are outlawed. The same situation applied to Weimer Berlin. Very few gay men were thinking politically. They were thinking almost exclusively sexually. Lesbians had a much broader sense of the wider picture. I thought that we, like old Berlin, were hurling toward some kind of disaster.

EDGE: In 1920s Europe, gay liberation seemed to be progressing until the Nazis came into power. In 1970s America, gay liberation again seemed to be moving forward until the AIDS epidemic held it back. Legal gay marriage is now a reality around the world, and being gay is perhaps more mainstream than ever. Yet we now have countries with gay propaganda laws. How do you interpret this pendulum swing from understanding to ignorance?

Sherman: Gay liberation, as I indicated above, was not really moving forward in the 70s, cosmetically, yes, but not profoundly. Stonewall created an idea that had barely existed before, and inspired a number of extraordinarily brave gay activists, but they were, in truth, in the minority.

AIDS changed everything. It is a horrible irony. It forced gay men to find their political voice. It forced gay men and lesbians to reach out to each other. It forced straight men and women to recognize that some of their children or their siblings or their friends were gay. It destroyed the culture of invisibility. It made gay men and lesbians realize that only when you alter the laws can you have profound change.

The Nazis did not create an anti-gay law when they took over Germany. They simply activated an old law that had been there for generations. And the Allies retained the law when they won the war. Which is why the situation of gay men in Germany was secret for so long. And now laws are being created in parts of Asia and Africa, heavily influenced by American evangelists that are more draconian than any that existed in the West.

EDGE: Do you think being openly gay is different than it was in 1980?

Sherman: Totally different. There is no comparison. Until recently, it was an act of bravery. Now it is an act of choice.

EDGE: Horst is opposed to power-play within gay relationships. Is this a product of his situation, or do you think gay men use fetishism to disguise their more intimate feelings?

Sherman: I think men, gay and straight, disguise their more intimate feelings. Fetishism is simply one means to that end.

EDGE: The theme of sexuality (physical contact) in relation to death occurs a few times in 'Bent,' (enough that the director of this current production chose to end the play with Wagner's 'Liebestod' from 'Tristan and Isolde'). What do you think of this choice? Does this reflect your intentions and sentiments in regard to the play's ending?

Sherman: Writing a play is like having a child. You give birth to it and then nurture it but at some point it must leave home and find its own life. Sometimes you disagree with what the kid is doing, but it's usually best to butt out.

A play, after some time, is open to many interpretations. I have heard wonderful things about the Boston production. But I personally object to the 'Liebestod' being played, although I understand it is hugely effective. The ending of the play was written for silence. But gifted artists must be allowed their own take.

EDGE: Any final thoughts?

Sherman: This does give me an opportunity to say how pleased I am that the play is being seen in Boston.

I studied at Boston University's Theatre Department and my four years there meant everything to me. Along with the Gay Sweatshop, it was the formative experience of my life. We were an unhappy generation (this was 1956-1960) and everyone there, everyone, was in a lot of pain (life changed wonderfully for the young in the later sixties), but the pain brought out the sensitivity in many of us, and drove us to productive futures.

BU's theatre department was womb-like then, it protected many of us from the real world for a time, but enabled some of us to grow muscles to cope with the world that awaited us. Many of us, many of the most talented, did not survive, but life was different then, in so many ways, and for all the horrors of the present world, life has so intrinsically improved.

"Bent" continues through Oct. 11 at the Boston Center for the Arts. For tickets and more information, please go to www.zeitgeiststage.com