Martin Sherman’s ground-breaking play begins in Berlin in June 1934, on the “Night of the Long Knives”, when Hitler issued an order to purge all homosexuals from the Army. Max, a small-timer wheeler-dealer, and his dancer boyfriend, Rudy, are recovering from a night of debauchery with an SA trooper, when two soldiers burst into their apartment, thus forcing them on a nightmare odyssey through Nazi Germany – through a Berlin nightclub, a forest hideout, a prison-train, and, ultimately, Dachau concentration camp. 

Ever the survivor, in Dachau, Max elects to wear the Yellow Jewish Star rather than the Pink Triangle for homosexuals, because homosexuals are ranked on a lower scale even than the Jews.

But, it’s in the dehumanising grind of the prison stone-yards that he learns, from fellow-prisoner, Horst, love, acceptance, sacrifice and ultimate redemption.

Starring Ian McKellen as Max, this landmark play premiered at London’s Royal Court Theatre in 1979. The following year, on Broadway, Richard Gere played Max. Independent Theatre’s production will occur 40 years since the South Australian Theatre Company performed it, with John Hargreaves and Tim Considine.

It will also coincide with, and be a part of, the 2020 Feast Festival.