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Martin Sherman
Long a resident of London, the openly gay playwright Martin Sherman made his move to the big screen in the late 1990s with his original script "Alive and Kicking/Indian Summer" (1996) and the adaptation of his biggest stage success "Bent" (1997). Sherman has twice published collections of "Gay Plays" and many of his works focus on homosexuality. "Bent" was first performed in workshop at the O'Neill Theatre Centre in Waterford, Connecticut, in 1978, before premiering in London (with Ian McKellen in the lead) and on Broadway (with Richard Gere) in 1979. The play was the first to deal with the treatment of homosexuals by the Nazis during WWII. Set primarily in a concentration camp, it garnered controversy over two scenes in which the gay inmates achieve climax by words.