It was a full house Wednesday night in Memorial Auditorium as students, residents and theater-lovers alike attended the Tony-award winning musical, Spring Awakening.
Spring Awakening is the coming of age story about teens dealing with sexuality, ignorance and death in a world ran by adults, and not always in the best way. Originally written in as a play in 1891 by Frank Wedekind, the original and musical adaptation takes place in late-nineteenth century Germany.
The show centers around Melchior Gabor, a progressive and at times, radical, teen, and love interest, Wendla Bergmann, a naïve-to-the-point-of-ignorance 14-year-old girl. Melchior’s spastic and manic friend, Moritz Stiefel, also plays a lead role as the punching bag of the conservative and over-bearing adults.
The musical begins with Wendla asking her mother where babies come from. “By loving your husband,” she replies, leaving Wendla with a warped view of reproduction and confusion about her soon-to-be intense sexual feelings for childhood friend, Melchior. The next scene depicts an inept Moritz struggling in school, and later struggling with his own “sticky dreams” as he pleads to Melchior for help.
Throughout the musical, the adults consistently undermine the teenagers and deprave them of any real growth or answers about life and sexuality. As the teens explore themselves more and more, the adults strike them harder and harder. Melchior struggles with his position in society and his desire to change the world, Moritz struggles with impressing his father and not becoming a failure, and Wendla struggles with what is right and wrong in the eyes of her parents and in the eyes of God.
With music and lyrics by legend Duncan Sheik, the show is not about fancy sets or intricate dance routines – it’s all about the music and the story. The organic set – made up solely of chairs and hand-held microphones – allows for the audience to connect with the actors and the story they are portraying. While the musical is centered around “old school” concepts, it’s all about the contemporary, rock music. The musicians are on stage the entire time, wearing modern outfits that add to the rock ‘n roll mood of the entire show.
The musical ends with a song titled “The Song of Purple Summer” indicating hope for the future. Other songs depict the anarchy of teens toward adults –“Totally F—ed” and “The B*tch of Living” are two examples of this – while others describe the guilt the teens feel for their sexual feelings—“The Guilty Ones” and “Mama Who Bore Me.”
The next installment in Ohio University’s Performing Art Series is the Goo Goo Dolls concert on April 6 and musical Avenue Q on April 12. For more information check out the website here: http://www.ohio.edu/performingarts/.
Photos by Andy Snow