Savage – White Bear Theatre
Savage is admiral in its efforts to spread information about the atrocities committed by lesser-known Nazi war criminal Carl Værnet, and his post-war escape to Argentina. Værnet was a Danish doctor who attempted to “cure” homosexuality, and his methods involved human experimentation on concentration camp inmates. After the war, he was captured and detained in a British prisoner of war camp, but was able to escape, with the British and Danish governments perhaps even aiding him in starting a new life in Argentina. Gay conversion therapy, of which Værnet was a proponent, is legal in the UK and Denmark.
Despite the play’s noble intentions, Savage is not particularly enlightening or powerful. As an exposé of Værnet, it provides only the most surface level information, and as a drama it fall...