Spring Awakening

First published on 25 Sep 2009. Updated on 5 Apr 2011.

If the idea of sulky teenagers dancing and singing about how adults suck for two hours makes you shudder, then watching Spring Awakening won't convert you. But this impassioned, angry musical, melding Wedekind's iconoclastic 1892 play with rock songs penned by Americans Steven Slater and Duncan Sheik, strikes a raw and relevant nerve in 2010.

It's about the disastrous consequences of not being open with kids about sex. At a school in a small German town in the 1890s, the teachers rule by the rod and don't brook any independent thought. When Moritz (Akos Armont) falls asleep in class, he's targeted by the Latin master as a moron. He's only sleepy because erotic dreams have been troubling him and keeping him awake; he has no idea what they mean, and his book-read friend Melchior (Andrew Hazzard) has to explain the facts of life to him. Meanwhile Wendla (Clare Bowen) begs her mother to explain where babies come from, only to be told that women conceive children when they love their husbands "with all their heart". Hasty, unprotected teen sex inevitably follows, and, later, tragedy.

Director Geordie Brookman cast his show with competent young performers gleaned during two months of open calls. As Melchior, Hazzard impresses with both his vocal ability and physical presence, while Bowen's voice is as sweet as her countenance. As the dorky Moritz, Akos Armont seems to be consciously channelling the Neil Finn of Split Enz. Playing all the adult roles, Helen Dallimore and Berynn Schwerdt prove exemplars of the twin arts of comic characterisation and quick change. Anna Tregolan's set of rustic timbers, illuminated by hundreds of lightbulbs that rise and fall, creates some beautiful effects.

On opening night the energy levels did not hit the mark until ‘Totally Fucked,' the second act's famous song of disaffection. This, and the moving finale ‘The Song of Purple Summer', are highlights of a musical with precious few memorable melodies. This may be a conscious artistic choice - as if composer Sheik simply wanted to capture the barely formed, shouty nature of adolescence.

It would be easy to feel condescending towards Spring Awakening if its themes weren't as urgent as ever. One of its inspirations was George W Bush's insane campaign of ‘abstinence'; and, on a global scale, sex education and sexual freedom are not exactly universals. Older audiences may be sceptical, but this spirited musical should find an enthusiastic audience among teens and pre-teens. And that's a good thing: a tough dose of sex ed is sure to go down nicely when it comes with the message of how teachers and parents are, like, douchebags.

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Preview:

Elvis may be is the king of rock'n'roll, and Jack White his heir apparent, but their royal lineage dates back at least as far as 1891, to a play by a Munich bon vivant called Frank Wedekind. Spring Awakening: A Children's Tragedy explosively portrayed the stirrings of pubescent desire and the dangers of keeping the young in the dark on matters of sex. Tackling masturbation, homosexuality, child abuse and abortion, it has been consistently banned ever since.

"It's absolutely take-no-prisoners," says Geordie Brookman (Baghdad Wedding), who's directing the new musical version of Spring Awakening for the Sydney Theatre Company. "The way it confronts all the basic issues of adolescence head-on is incredibly brave. Parts of it still shock a contemporary audience, and that's why it's such a coup de theatre for Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater to have injected rock'n'roll into it, because at its best rock'n'roll is the perfect expression of that conflicted place of adolescence."

Spring Awakening, the musical, still locates its action in a pious provincial burg in fin de siècle Germany, but the characters' inner monologues are expressed through contemporary rock ballads. "It's two really dynamic poles to work between," says Brookman. He and the STC have been given the green light to stage their own "non-replica" version - a rarity for a multiple Tony-winning Broadway smash. "It's wonderful they feel secure enough in their own material to let other people reinterpret it. The kids can sing in Australian voices, so it can really connect with its audience."

Unlike in typical high school fare, the show's toey jocks, geeks and popular girls have no idea what's happening to their bodies or why. When Wendla (Clare Bowen) asks her mother where babies come from, she's fobbed off with nonsense about the stork, while sensitive Moritz (Akos Armont) is tormented by his erotic dreams. The exception is worldly-wise rebel Melchior (Andrew Hazzard), who has studied biology books, but even he is thrown by the rush of emotions that comes with his first foray into sex.

"Melchior's book smart," says Hazzard, a Sam Worthington-in-waiting who appeared in the local stage version of High School Musical. "But that's really his downfall - he thinks he knows everything."

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"Teenage actors give it to you with absolute truth and immediately"

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"Wendla's the polar opposite of Melchior," says Bowen, a radiant stage newcomer who got her break in David Field's film The Combination. "She's all sensation and discovering things about her body and she finds a friend in Melchior. There's a scene where they end up beating one another for sheer want of sensation."

The production features 15 young performers found via open calls in Sydney and Melbourne, not unlike Australian Idol. Ages range from 17 to 24; some went straight from their HSC into rehearsals, and 40 per cent don't have any prior professional credits. "It's a whole different energy that radiates off them," Brookman says. "They give it to you with absolute truth, and they give it to you immediately." All the adult roles, meanwhile, are played by the versatile Helen Dallimore and Berynn Schwerdt.

Given that the show's action is driven by ignorance about sex, do the actors recall how they first learned about the birds and the bees?

"I grew up in the country and animals are not really shy," quips Bowen. "But that doesn't immediately translate to people. That's why it's such a good show for schools to come and see."

"I'm lucky because my mum is a doctor," laughs Hazzard. "The first time I said ‘where do babies come from - ' she was like ‘I'll tell you!' Not like the experience of these characters at all."

"My parents were open and talked me through stuff," says Brookman. "Which didn't stop it from being a hugely embarrassing conversation.

"There's more progressive sex education in schools now but it almost doesn't matter how educated you are about the facts of life, that knowledge and the actual event and the mess of emotions that get churned up is completely different territory." Nick Dent