Theatre - Spring Awakening - Belvoir St
High school is a fertile ground for drama. In recent decades, a slew of TV shows have mined the subject of teen angst. Buffy the Vampire Slayer turned high school into the hellmouth, and paired its characters’ inner demons with deadly, real ones. Roswell showed how a group of teenagers who felt like outsiders were actually the offspring of visitors from outer space; what made them different from the mainstream also gave them special powers and gifts.
There are no vampires or aliens in Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening, but the mix of adolescent emotions, sexual awakenings, pathos and darkly comic humour is the same. Wedekind’s play was banned in the nineteenth century for its brutally direct treatment of adolescent amorality, sexuality and morbidity. In the play, schoolboy Melchior is expelled for writing an essay on sexual reproduction. His friend Moritz commits suicide after failing an exam. Innocent young Wendla fantasises about sex and physical abuse. The boys Rilow and Robel agonise over their sexuality before declaring their love for each other. Wedekind’s play questions the shame and silence that society tends to impose on teen sexuality. Although we might like to think that we are more enlightened and progressive than Wedekind’s peers, Spring Awakening is as relevant today as it ever was, and will remain pertinent, so long as mass killings, abuse and rape in high schools continue to make the headlines.
Simon Stone has translated the play from its original German and directs the production currently playing at the Belvoir theatre downstairs. His version of the play massively truncates the original text, cutting down the cast of characters from around 30 to 13. The result is a fresh, lean and physical piece of theatre, contained to two half-hour acts that are separated by a twenty minute intermission. A cast of eight performers, all recent graduates of the Victorian School of Arts, attacks the play’s themes with enthusiasm. Standout performers include Katie-Lee Harding as the sexually innocent Wendla, and Angus Grant as the charming but amoral alpha male, Melchior. If the cast occasionally seems over-eager, resorting to shouting when understatement would do, their energy is admirable. Similarly, Stone’s direction lapses into gimmickry at times – I found the strobe lighting in the second act, for example, a little over-the-top and unnecessary – but more often than not hits its mark to powerfully visceral effect.
Over all, this is a strong production, headed by a solid cast. A clever set design confines individual characters to adjoining but separate metal chambers that are scarcely big enough for some of the taller cast members to squeeze into. The design, and the production in general, neatly captures how claustrophobic, isolating, tortuous and confusing adolescence can be.
Spring Awakening plays downstairs at Belvoir St Theatre until July 13.
Photos by Nicholas Higgins.
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