52-577: Martin Gerald Sherman (born December 22, 1938) is an American dramatist and screenwriter best known for his 20 stage plays which have been produced in over 60 countries. He rose to fame in 1979 with the production of his play Bent , which explores the persecution of homosexuals during the Holocaust . Bent was a Tony nominee for Best Play in 1980 and won the Dramatists Guild's Hull-Warriner Award. It
104-516: A Tony Award . Following the success of this production, Sherman moved to London. Despite his status as an expatriate , Sherman continued to write successfully for both the British and the American stage. He had great success with his re-write of the book for the musical The Boy from Oz , based on Peter Allen 's life and career, earning him a second Tony nomination. He has had a number of plays staged in
156-504: A Tory ". In a 2020 interview, she described herself as a "Labour luvvie" under the tenure of Tony Blair , as opposed to a "party member". She also said she would have to be "stark raving mad to support ( Conservative Party leader) Boris Johnson ". Lipman was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1999 New Year Honours and Dame Commander of the Order of
208-514: A book You Got An Ology in 1989, and which was still referred to 25 years later by politicians. After her husband died in May 2004 she completed his autobiography By Jack Rosenthal , and played herself in her daughter's four-part adaptation of the book, Jack Rosenthal's Last Act , on BBC Radio Four in July 2006. Her anthology, The Gibbon's In Decline But The Horse Is Stable , is a book of animal poems that
260-607: A celebrity contestant on Comic Relief Does The Apprentice to raise money for Comic Relief . The show saw her helping to run a funfair . Later in 2007, she made a guest appearance in Casualty ; this was followed by an appearance in a December 2011 episode of the Casualty spin-off Holby City , playing a different character. In May 2008, she appeared in the BBC documentary series Comedy Map of Britain . On Sunday 11 January 2009, BBC Four
312-451: A collaboration with Franco Zeffirelli on Callas Forever (2002), a biographical film of opera star Maria Callas , with Fanny Ardant and Jeremy Irons . Sherman also wrote The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003), a made-for-TV movie directed by Robert Allan Ackerman, with Helen Mirren , Anne Bancroft and Olivier Martinez , and Mrs Henderson Presents (2005), the tale of an eccentric World War I widow, Laura Henderson , who buys
364-519: A documentary producer wanted to follow her finding her first job – this was a lie but it seemed to work. Lipman was a member of Laurence Olivier 's National Theatre Company at the Old Vic from 1971 to 1973 and of the Royal Shakespeare Company for its 1973 Stratford season. Lipman has continued to work in the theatre for more than fifty years, playing, among other roles, Aunt Eller in
416-677: A line in Voltaire 's Candide — was next, and became Sherman's first published play when the dramatic rock musical was included in The Best Short Plays of 1970 . In the 1970s, Sherman traveled to London where he worked with the founding members of the Gay Sweatshop . After more than a decade of writing plays, Sherman found widespread fame in 1979 with his first blockbuster hit, Bent . First produced in London's West End starring Ian McKellen ,
468-609: A non-political charity that offers Burmese students the opportunity to study at university overseas. Lipman spoke on behalf of Prospect Burma in the BBC Radio 4 Appeal , broadcast in September 2009. Lipman supported Israel during the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah conflict . On 13 July 2006, in a debate on the BBC's This Week , she argued that "human life is not cheap to the Israelis, and human life on
520-523: A parliamentary motion in favour of recognising the State of Palestine . In April 2018, Lipman criticised Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for the way he had handled antisemitism in the Labour Party and the party's reputed failure to address the issue. Lipman attended a protest outside Labour's head office and said she was there "as a disenfranchised socialist". She identified with a placard reading "Corbyn made me
572-684: A playwright, explaining "all my plays are written for actors". After spending several years in New York, Sherman was appointed playwright in residence at Mills College in Oakland, California , where his rock musical, A Solitary Thing , premiered in 1963. Sherman returned to New York City in the mid-1960s where he wrote Fat Tuesday (1966), Next Year in Jerusalem (1968), and The Night Before Paris (1969). Things Went Badly in Westphalia —which takes its name from
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#1732890630784624-592: A weekly column in The Guardian in the newspaper's G2 section. She writes for The Oldie and is on the editorial advisory board of Jewish Renaissance magazine. Lipman is Jewish . She lives in Muswell Hill , north London and has two children, writers Amy and Adam Rosenthal. She was married to dramatist Jack Rosenthal from 1974 until his death in 2004, and has had a number of roles in his works. Retired computer expert Guido Castro, an Egyptian Jew,
676-435: Is a Jew rather than a homosexual, because he believes his chances for survival in the camp will be better if he is not assigned the pink triangle . Max later confesses, to the same prisoner from the train, that the guards then forced him to have intercourse with the body of a dead pre-teen girl to "prove" he was not homosexual. That prisoner reveals their name is Horst. In the camp, Max makes friends with Horst, who shows him
728-608: Is a 1979 British-American play by Martin Sherman . It revolves around the persecution of gays in Nazi Germany , and takes place during and after the Night of the Long Knives . The title of the play refers to the slang word "bent" used in some European countries to refer to homosexuals . When the play was first performed, there was only a trickle of historical research or even awareness about
780-403: Is beaten within an inch of his life, all the while Max tries to ignore his screams. Another prisoner on the train, wearing a pink triangle patch, explains the patch system during the Holocaust to Max and tells Max that he must show no sentiment towards Rudy. The officer has Rudy taken back to Max and coerces Max to beat Rudy to death. Max is taken by the guards and lies to them, telling them that he
832-493: Is illustrated by established cartoonists, including Posy Simmonds and Gerald Scarfe , to raise money for Myeloma UK, to combat the cancer to which she lost her husband. She also wrote a monthly column for Good Housekeeping magazine for more than ten years, which formed the basis for several autobiographical books, including How Was It For You? , Something To Fall Back On , Thank You For Having Me , You Can Read Me Like A Book and Lip Reading . Lipman has also contributed
884-451: Is legal, but Max refuses to leave Rudy behind. As a result, Max and Rudy are found in a forest tent-colony and arrested by the Gestapo . They are forced to board a train headed for Dachau concentration camp . On the train, Rudy is spotted wearing glasses by an officer. The officer makes Rudy crush his glasses, and then orders Rudy to be taken, presumably to be killed for his poor eyesight. Rudy
936-688: Is the coverage? It is as if the Iraq War has completely stopped while this blanket coverage in Lebanon goes on and on and on... I sometimes think Israel should ban the press as Zimbabwe has. They are a democracy, though, and behave accordingly... I respect freedom of speech, but I'm contemptuous of the 300 signatories [to the anti-Invasion Times advert and the Independent letter]. To English, assimilated, sometimes self-despising Jews such as Gerald Kaufman and Harold Pinter , I say: where are you going to go when
988-563: Is the night that Hitler orders the assassination of the upper echelon of the Sturmabteilung corps , to consolidate his power. Wolf is discovered the next morning and killed by SS men in Max and Rudy's apartment, and the two have to flee their home. They seek counsel from Rudy's boss Greta. Greta is a drag queen; she ran her own gay club, which is newly shut down (implicitly due to, at the time, new Paragraph 175 enforcements). Greta explains that
1040-580: The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and her stage work has included appearances with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company . She was made a dame in the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to charity, entertainment and the arts. Lipman was born on 10 May 1946 in Hull , East Riding of Yorkshire , England, the daughter of Maurice Julius Lipman and Zelma Pearlman. Her father
1092-754: The St. James Theatre . In 2017, she starred with Felicity Kendal in a revival of Lettice and Lovage at the Menier Chocolate Factory . In 2018, she starred with Martin Shaw in The Best Man at the Playhouse Theatre , as well as returning to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the first time in fifty years with a one-woman show of jokes and storytelling called Up For It . After early appearances in
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#17328906307841144-459: The West End . Ian McKellen played Max and Tom Bell played Horst. In 1997, Sherman adapted Bent into a film of the same name , directed by Sean Mathias . The film featured Clive Owen as Max, Lothaire Bluteau as Horst, and Ian McKellen as Freddie. Maureen Lipman Dame Maureen Diane Lipman DBE (born 10 May 1946 ) is an English actress, columnist and comedian. She trained at
1196-715: The Zionist Federation in a protest outside the London premiere of a Palestinian play, The Siege , at Battersea Arts Centre . In an interview with The Guardian on 18 August 2020, Lipman inaccurately asserted that Hezbollah had claimed responsibility for the 2020 Beirut explosion , stating: "I'm very grateful that Hezbollah said they did it". She intimated that she would not be prepared to work alongside some pro-Palestinian actors, citing Maxine Peake and Miriam Margolyes as examples. In 2024, Lipman said that protests against Israel are "close to fascism ". She said, "These bleeding heartless liberals care so deeply for
1248-651: The 1990s. Sherman adapted Bent for the big screen in 1997 with the help of director Sean Mathias and starring such actors as Clive Owen , Ian McKellen , and Mick Jagger . Other film titles include Clothes in the Wardrobe in 1992 (released in the US as The Summer House , 1993), an adaptation of Alice Thomas Ellis's novel, with Jeanne Moreau , Joan Plowright , Julie Walters and Lena Headey , Alive and Kicking (1996), directed by Nancy Meckler , with Jason Flemyng , Antony Sher , Dorothy Tutin and Bill Nighy , as well as
1300-489: The BBC comedy drama Eskimo Day , written by husband Jack Rosenthal and directed by Piers Haggard , about the trials and tribulations of three young would-be students as they arrive with their families at Queens' College, Cambridge , on interview day. There was a sequel, Cold Enough for Snow , in 1997. She appeared as snooty landlady Lillian Spencer in Coronation Street for six episodes in 2002. The character
1352-534: The Junction (1968). She played the title character's mother in Roman Polanski 's film The Pianist (2002). In the 1999 film Solomon & Gaenor , the character she played spoke Yiddish throughout. In 1987, she was cast as the character "Beatrice Bellman" ("Beatie/BT"), a Jewish grandmother in a series of television commercials for British Telecom , a role which became sufficiently well known to launch
1404-648: The National Theatre's Oklahoma! . From November 2005 to April 2006 she played Florence Foster Jenkins in the Olivier Award -nominated show Glorious! at the Duchess Theatre in London's West End . From October 2010 to February 2011, Lipman starred in a production of J.B. Priestley 's When We Are Married at the Garrick Theatre . In 2012, she directed and appeared in a production of Barefoot in
1456-489: The Nazi persecution of homosexuals. In some regards, the play helped increase that historical research and education in the 1980s and 1990s. Maximilian Berber (Max), a promiscuous gay man in 1930s Berlin , is at odds with his wealthy family because of his homosexuality. One evening, much to the resentment of his boyfriend Rudolph Hennings (Rudy), he brings home a handsome Sturmabteilung man, Wolfgang Granz (Wolf). Unfortunately, it
1508-649: The Palestinians? That they espouse their cause at the expense of every other oppressed people of the world... Shame. Shame. Shame on every one of you." Lipman does not support the Palestinian right of return , saying: "[A]s far as I can see nobody in history has ever had the right to return." In a January 2015 interview on LBC Radio , Lipman said she was considering emigrating to the United States or Israel in response to what she perceived as increasing antisemitism in
1560-851: The Park on tour and starred in Old Money at the Hampstead Theatre . In 2013, she starred in Daytona at The Park Theatre followed by a tour, and in 2014 a season at the Theatre Royal Haymarket . In 2015, she starred with James Dreyfus in Mary Chase 's play Harvey at Birmingham Rep , on tour and at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. In 2016, she starred in My Mother Said I Never Should at
1612-451: The SS approached her for information about Wolf, and that she took them to Max and Rudy's apartment. She officially fires Rudy and hands Max the finder's fee she earned from the SS. They leave the club and Berlin behind. Max's uncle Freddie, who is also gay, but lives a more discreet life with rent boys to satisfy his desires, has organized new papers for Max to flee to France where homosexuality
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1664-596: The United Kingdom . In November 2023 Lipman joined a march against antisemitism in London alongside prominent celebrities including Vanessa Feltz , Robert Rinder , Tracy-Ann Oberman , Elliot Levey , Rachel Riley , Eddie Marsan , and David Baddiel . At the 2005 general election , Lipman supported the Labour Party , but declared in October 2014 that she could no longer do so due to leader Ed Miliband 's support for
1716-507: The West End, including Messiah (1982) with Maureen Lipman , A Madhouse In Goa (1989) with Vanessa Redgrave and Rupert Graves , When She Danced (1991) with Vanessa Redgrave, Oleg Menshikov and Frances de la Tour and Onassis (2010) with Robert Lindsay . His play Some Sunny Day premiered at the Hampstead Theatre in 1996, with Rupert Everett and Corin Redgrave . He found success in
1768-510: The bus into Philadelphia to see plays. "I was the only kid in junior high school to have seen Camino Real ," he told interviewer Matt Wolf. In 1956 Sherman enrolled at Boston University College of Fine Arts , where he earned a BFA in dramatic arts. Upon graduating in 1960, he moved to New York City, where he studied at the Actors Studio under the legendary director Harold Clurman . Sherman credits this experience with shaping his technique as
1820-475: The conflict was "heavily distorted": There is rarely any film of rockets being fired into Israel, nor any mention of the damage, nor of the 250,000 refugees who have fled to the centre of Israel, nor of rockets targeting Israel every day since it withdrew from Gaza , nor the damage done by 100 Hezbollah rockets a day... More people are being killed in São Paulo , Somalia and Darfur than in this conflict. Where
1872-521: The dignity that lies in acknowledging what one is. They fall in love and become lovers through their imagination and through their words. After Horst is shot by camp guards, Max puts on Horst's jacket with the pink triangle and commits suicide by grabbing an electric fence . Bent premiered in London in 1979 at the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square, London, the production later transferring to
1924-529: The first time on The Green Tie on the Little Yellow Dog , which was recorded 1982, and broadcast by Channel 4 in 1983. She played the lead role in the television series All at No 20 (1986–87) and took on a range of diverse characters when starring in the series of comedy plays About Face (1989–91). She is known for playing Joyce Grenfell in the biographical show Re: Joyce! , which she co-wrote with James Roose-Evans . In 1996 she appeared in
1976-593: The genre of one-woman plays with Rose, which was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play when it premiered in London in 1999. The show transferred to Broadway the following year, where it starred Olympia Dukakis . His most recent play, Gently Down The Stream , premiered at the Public Theatre in New York in 2017, directed by Sean Mathias and starring Harvey Fierstein . In 2003, Franco Zeffirelli directed Sherman's adaptation of Luigi Pirandello 's Right You Are, if You Think So . The pair retitled
2028-673: The old Windmill Theatre in London and relaunches it as a venue for female all nude revues. The latter starred Judi Dench , Bob Hoskins , and Christopher Guest , and was directed by Stephen Frears . It earned Sherman a nomination for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Best Original Screenplay. Kevin De Ornellas, "Martin Sherman". In Gabrielle H. Cody and Evert Sprinchorn, eds, The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama, 2 volumes (Columbia University Press, 2007), volume 2, pp. 1235-36. ISBN: 9780231140324. Bent (play) Bent (sometimes stylised as BENT )
2080-614: The other side is quite cheap actually, because they strap bombs to people and send them to blow themselves up." These comments were condemned by columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown who said "Brutally straight, she sees no equivalence between the lives of the two tribes". Lipman responded to Alibhai-Brown's accusation of racism by arguing that the columnist had deliberately misrepresented Lipman's comments as generalisations about Muslims rather than specific comments about terrorists. In The Jewish Chronicle , Lipman argued that media reporting of
2132-580: The play tells the story of Max, a gay man in Berlin during the Weimar Republic . After Max and his boyfriend are forced to flee the city following the Night of the Long Knives , the two live in hiding for two years before being captured by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp . The play was considered extremely controversial. Despite the uproar, Bent transferred to Broadway , where it starred Richard Gere and became an instant hit, being nominated for
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2184-518: The shit hits the fan? It doesn't matter if you stand in Parliament or marry into the aristocracy, there will be no Israel to receive you, as they have received so many before. Why didn't they put their ad in an Israeli newspaper? Because it is more important to impress their fellow Englishmen than to effect change in the situation. Where are their signatures against Burma, Nepal , Tibet and Zimbabwe?... In May 2015, Lipman joined pro-Israel groups including
2236-569: The sitcoms The Lovers , and Doctor at Large , and a role in The Evacuees (1975), Lipman first gained prominence on television in the situation comedy Agony (1979–81), in which she played an agony aunt with a troubled private life. In her role as Stella Craven in Smiley's People (1982), Lipman appeared with Alec Guinness . She performed the Joyce Grenfell monologue The Committee for
2288-405: The subject of design, one for UKTV about Art Deco and one about 20th-century design for ITV / Sky Travel . She performed as a villain, The Wire , in the 2006 series of Doctor Who in the episode entitled " The Idiot's Lantern ". She has also appeared on Just a Minute , The News Quiz , That Reminds Me , This Week and Have I Got News for You . In 2007, Lipman appeared as
2340-470: The work Absolutely! {perhaps} when it premiered at the Wyndham Theatre on London's West End where it was nominated that year for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Revival. Following that critical acclaim, Sherman also premiered stage adaptations of the novels A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone by Tennessee Williams . He also found success as a screenwriter in
2392-819: Was a tailor; he used to have a shop between the Ferens Art Gallery and Monument Bridge. Lipman grew up Jewish and found post-war Hull a welcoming place for the Jewish community. She lived in Northfield Road, Hull and attended Wheeler Primary School. Lipman then attended Newland School for Girls in Hull, and in her youth became interested in performing. She performed in school productions, attended an early Beatles concert, and watched Elizabeth Taylor 's Butterfield 8 fifteen times. Her first performances at home included impersonations of Alma Cogan ; "a nice Jewish girl, she
2444-730: Was adapted by Sherman for a major motion picture in 1997 and later by independent sources as a ballet in Brazil. Sherman is Jewish and openly gay, and many of his works dramatize "outsiders," dealing with the discrimination and marginalization of minorities whether "gay, female, foreign, disabled, different in religion, class or color." He has lived and worked in London since 1980. Sherman was an only child, born in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, to Russian Jewish immigrants, Julia (née Shapiro) and Joseph T. Sherman, an attorney. Growing up in Camden, New Jersey , he
2496-404: Was big in our house", and she was encouraged into an acting career by her mother, who used to take her to the pantomime and push her onto the stage. Lipman trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art . Lipman worked extensively in the theatre following her début in a stage production of The Knack at the Palace Theatre , Watford . In order to get the post, she pretended that
2548-436: Was devoted to a "Maureen Lipman Night". On 5 February 2009, she appeared in the third series of teen drama Skins , in the episode entitled "Thomas" as Pandora Moon 's Aunt Elizabeth. She played Irene Spencer in the ITV3 comedy Ladies of Letters , in which she starred alongside Anne Reid . The show's first series started in 2009, and it returned for a second series in 2010. Lipman made an early film appearance in Up
2600-466: Was employed by Fred Elliott ( John Savident ) to run The Rovers Return Inn . She re-joined the cast of Coronation Street in August 2018, this time playing Evelyn Plummer , the long-lost grandmother of Tyrone Dobbs ( Alan Halsall ). In 2003 she appeared in Jonathan Creek in the episode "The Tailor's Dummy". Lipman played Maggie Wych in the children's television show The Fugitives , broadcast in 2005. She has narrated two television series on
2652-465: Was first introduced to the theater at age six, when he saw a pre-Broadway version of Guys and Dolls (1950). Sherman's parents encouraged his passion. In an interview with London Times writer Sheridan Morley in 1983, Sherman recalled, "At 12 I joined the Mae Desmond Children's Players and went all around Pennsylvania being a tall dwarf in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ." As a young teen, Sherman despised school, but consoled himself by often taking
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#17328906307842704-401: Was her partner from 2008 until his death in January 2021. In August 2024, Lipman became engaged to David Turner, co-founder of gym chain LA Fitness (now owned by PureGym ). Lipman supports the work of the Burma Campaign UK , Europe's largest NGO regarding Myanmar (Burma). Lipman supports the process of democratisation in the country. Lipman also supports the work of Prospect Burma,
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