CHRIS THURMAN: A victory of juvenile energy over dour authority
Stage production gives a sense of community and equality between young people united across gender and sexuality
Described in superficial terms, the premise of Spring Awakening may seem familiar. Boy and girl grow up in a strict society that is anathema to youth and freedom. Boy and girl fall in love, or lust. With their pals, they seek independence and self-expression despite the strictures of repressed and oppressive adults. Add a comic resolution and it’s Hairspray. If it ends in tragedy, it’s West Side Story.
As Johannesburg audiences are about to discover, however, Spring Awakening is like neither of these — and indeed, like nothing you’ve seen before. Here, the boys and girls straddle two worlds: 19th century Germany and 21st century America. They inhabit the houses, classrooms and landscapes imagined by avant-garde German playwright Frank Wedekind when he wrote the play Frühlings Erwachen (Spring Awakening) in 1891. They wear the same clothes, they are tormented by the same schoolmasters and priests, they suffer at the hands of the same parents...
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