The Awakening of Spring

It's stunning but the elements of this play are instantly recognizable to anyone who has seen an "Our Town" performance, and liked it. A minimalist set, soliloquies and dialogs from and to the dead echo across the decades. It is astounding that this play existed and ran during a period of Victorian morality and codes of conduct which in later decades would intensely condemn and attempt to stifle creative writing exposing raw sexuality and conflict.

Being a high-brow play, this deserves a second and third consumption to catch the nuisances and to focus on a character during the run.

In this modernized version, extra "skin" is sprinkled in for sensation and often distracts from the spoken word. The high points of the play/film are the quiet exchanges between conflicted characters and those in emotional distress--on the edge.

First of all, it's basically a photographed stage play, though it's all done in a studio (with neutral backdrops and extremely minimal scenery), not in a theatre in front of an audience. If that turns you off, okay, but it's hardly unprecedented.

Apart from that annoying clarinet, I quite like it. It's a nice to see the Wedekind play done straight (though liberties are taken, names are anglicized and marks become dollars), not to take anything away from the musical "Spring's Awakening."

Although the attitude towards sex education may have changed, and our mores, and the amount of information available to children, human nature has not. The way the people grope for answers and try to understand their own feelings and impulses and physicality is timeless.

The acting under Seidelman's direction is very good. Jesse Lee Soffer is very charismatic, Constance Towers is excellent. Bridget Moloney does wonderful things with her little part. There is some tasteful and artistically justified nudity, none of it full frontal.

A clever idea of Seidelman's is to have the teachers (but not the headmaster) in the faculty meeting where Michael is expelled wear carnival masks. It allows them to be doubled (which one senses they are) by the young actors playing the students and thereby adds an extra dimension to the caricatures they basically are.

But over all, the spareness of the production, the fact that it focuses on the generations in the way it does, and the English names and places (New Hampshire is actually mentioned) cause it to dialogue with "Our Town." It becomes the more unflinching cousin of the Wilder play. The dead even come back.

I had read a lot of bad things about this, but I actually enjoyed it. I am a big Spring Awakening fan and have read the original play, and seen the musical. The way the story flowed was interesting taking plot elements from the original play and the musical and adding in things I don't recall in either. Never the less it was a fresh perspective on this archaic yet somehow modern story. I found the nudity a bit gratuitous, but I guess that was just an artistic choice. I also didn't understand why it was necessary to change the names of the characters, I found it distracting. The acting isn't wonderful, but I must say I enjoyed the characters of Michael/Melchior and Matthew/Moritz, I wish I could see more from these talented young men. At times Anne/Wendla's acting seemed odd for the time period it is supposed to be, although the time and place are left open to interpretation in this case. And I felt Miriam/Ilse was a bit over the top with not much substance. However, Frank Wedekind's writing is very interesting and beautiful, with a unique story and human characters. It amazes me how in both this production and the musical, this story needs no frills. No smoke and mirrors to distract from the language and story. I found the minimal set quite satisfactory. I agree with the first poster about the clarinet, annoying and distracting. I liked this more than I thought I would, it is strange in a good way. I would suggest anyone not familiar with the story read the play or see the musical. But Spring Awakening fans who enter with an open mind should enjoy it thoroughly!