The Chatham Community Players' successful "Sundays @ 7" Play Reading Series is proud to present Martin Sherman's, BENT. One Night ONLY - Sunday, June 4, 2017 at 7:00 at the Chatham Playhouse, 23 North Passaic Avenue, in Chatham. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door. Jeffrey Fiorello and Salvador Navarro co-direct this evening's reading.
In 1934 Berlin on the eve of the Nazi incursion, Max, a grifter and his lover Rudy are recovering from a night of debauchery with a SA trooper. Two soldiers burst into the apartment and slit their guest's throat, beginning a nightmare odyssey through Nazi Germany. Ranked lower on the human scale than Jews, the men as awoved homosexuals, flee. Desperate and on the run, Max asks his own "discreetly" homosexual Uncle Freddie for help as the older man offers little more than suggestions on how to live, as he does, practicing homosexuality on the side. Attempting their escape, Rudy is beaten to death as Horst, another homosexual prisoner, warns Max to deny his lover. Taken to a death camp at Dachau, Max and Horst branded with the "pink triangle", hope to survive with each other for comfort and courage but it is not to be.
The Cast:
Dale Monroe as Max
Shane Jared as Rudy
Pete Fournier as Wolf
Tom Schopper as Captain 1
E Dale Smith-Gallo as Greta
Patrick Horan as Uncle Freddie
Scott Baird as Officer
Adrian Rifat as Horst
Chip Prestera as Guard
Dominick DeNucci as Captain
With Stage Directions Read by Kate Pierce and Ken Magos on Piano
Produced by Gus Ibranyi and Leslie Gayle Williams
Light snacks provided, patrons are encouraged to BYOB
Funding has been made possible in part by the Arts Council of the Morris Area through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.