Bent thumbnail 1
On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Bent

Poster
1990 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Dix, Otto (artist)
Mayhew, Michael (designers)
Rainsford, Gordon (photographers)
Place of origin
London (printed)

Photographic, pictorial and typographic poster advertising Martin Sherman's play Bent at the National Theatre. Black and white close up photograph, head and one shoulder, of Ian McKellen as an anguished Max, with, behind him to viewer's right, part of the central section of Otto Dix's triptych Großstadt, showing dancers in a night club.

Object details

Categories
Entertainment & Leisure
Theatre
Posters
Advertising
Object type
Poster
TitleBent (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Printing ink on paper
Printing Ink
Paper
Printing
Brief description
Poster advertising Martin Sherman's play Bent at the National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre, 1990
Physical description
Photographic, pictorial and typographic poster advertising Martin Sherman's play Bent at the National Theatre. Black and white close up photograph, head and one shoulder, of Ian McKellen as an anguished Max, with, behind him to viewer's right, part of the central section of Otto Dix's triptych Großstadt, showing dancers in a night club.
Dimensions
  • Height: 42cm
  • Width: 30cm
Gallery label
(2020)
Gallery rotation, 2020

POSTER FOR BENT
1990

The persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany was largely unrecognised when Bent premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Martin Sherman’s landmark play highlighted the horrors of the concentration camps and depicted love against the odds. Ian McKellen reprised his role as Max in this 1990 revival and his tortured image reflects the play’s universal theme of humanity’s cruelty.

Designed by Michael Mayhew
Printing ink on paper
Museum no. S.1419-1995
Object history
Associated Production: Bent. Playwright: Martin Sherman. Composer: Tracy Williams. Director: Sean Mathias. Set designer: Michael Vale. Costume designer: Tracy Klyne. Actors: Ian McKellen, John Atterbury, Neil Daglish, David Hounslow. Lyttelton Theatre, National Theatre, South Bank, London. Performance category: drama.
Production
This poster was designed from a photograph of Ian McKellen by Gordon Rainsford and from Großstadt, a triptych by Otto Dix.
Subject depicted
McKellen, Ian
Collection
Theatre and Performance Collection
Accession number
S.1419-1995

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Record createdJuly 29, 2010
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1166436/bent-poster-dix-otto/
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