A STORY of love and survival of the human spirit will be performed by Weymouth Drama Club next month.

The group will stage Bent at the Warehouse Theatre in Hope Street from July 12 to 14.

This play, by Martin Sherman in association with Samuel French, tackles the subject of the changes to laws on homosexuality in 1930s Germany by the Nazis and how, along with the intelligentsia, Jews, criminals and gypsies they were ostracised by society and rounded up to be dealt with. It is a story of love and survival of the human spirit in the face of inhumanity by a regime that has outlawed your very existence.

The play still resonates today and it is a subject people should be made aware of and for us all to remember how easy a society can be made to hate a particular group because they are swayed and persuaded to by people in power.

Bent was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in 1979 and starred Ian McKellen and Tom Bell.

There are light-hearted and funny moments in the play, but this is not a comedy and contains intense adult themes.

Bent is co-directed by Andrew Neve and Gemma Higgins and stars both new actors to Weymouth Drama and some older stalwarts of the Club including Senan Jehu, Adam Cawton, Andy Neve, Aiden Watson, Paul Gorsuch, Derrick Leyton Smith, John Bower, John Cropper and Pete Hutton with costumes made by Jacqui Martin.

n Bent, Weymouth Drama Club, Warehouse Theatre, Hope Street, Weymouth, July 12, 13 and 14. All performances are at 7.30pm. Tickets are £10 and are available at weymouthdramaclub.com or on 0333 6663366.