Review: Spring Awakening
Dare to look
Spring Awakening speaks about painful issues in an elegant and powerful way.
The information about the controversial musical’s tough themes and straightforward presentation style raised expectations: how will we get through it without blushing? Should we undress and how much? Is the viewer’s tolerance and the limits of good taste being tested? Masturbation, incest, homosexuality – what else?
All conservative worries were in vain. The clothes stay on, and you don’t have to watch the incest either, even though it is present on stage, in the body of the stained girl.
Spring Awakening talks about tough topics, but in terms of its approach, it is the most elegant theatrical art, deeply touching and ultimately moving to tears, if you dare to identify with the characters’ pain, despair and finally hope.
The musical is not all gloom. It also has its own comical parts, especially in the beginning.
The question arises as to why there has been so much buzz about this musical. There is nothing unprecedented on stage, not to mention sensational. The box office is buzzing – maybe that’s why the noise.
The musical is about , among other things, the eternal gap between generations, even war, and the sexual awakening of young people, the pain of growing up in a strictly moral framework. The original play was written as early as 1891, and the events of the musical also take place in Germany at the end of the 1800s.
The historical perspective clarifies the antiquity of the play’s themes. Although one of the favorite sayings of today’s educators is that parenthood is lost, it has not been quite under control before, if ever.
However, it is probably not a question of losing parenthood, but of a lack of encounter between generations. Paralyzed by their own traumas, parents are unable to guide their offspring from childhood to adulthood so that they would develop healthy self-esteem and the right kind of insight into their own self, both mental and physical dignity.
If a person does not value themselves, they are ashamed. A person who is ashamed of themselves feels bad. A bad person drifts into desperate acts.
When a person feels worthless, you can do anything to them, even destroy them. The destruction can be done by others or it can be done by oneself. This is what happens to Moritz Stiefel (Petrus Kähkönen), who is driven to suicide and is not only ashamed of his sexuality, but also experiences the mental invalidation of his parents when his schooling does not go as planned.
The love story is born between the idealistic and socially critical Melchior Gabor (Jarkko Tamminen) and the kind family girl Wendla Bergman (Sara Melleri). A teenage pregnancy is a great shame for the family and the mother arranges an illegal abortion for her daughter, without her knowledge, of course.
Today , teenagers are much more aware of the physical and technical issues related to sexuality than previous generations, but no generation can learn how to deal with their own emotions from books.
In the musical, ignorance grows into a broader picture of how impossible it is for a young person to grow up without a parent who walks around and is present. What makes it cruel is that help cannot be found where it should be.
Spring Awakening is, above all, energetic theatrical expression, where the music that skillfully interprets the moods of the characters, from ballads to hard rock, strongly advances the story.
Musically, the very talented, fresh, powerful and sensitive young actors (many of them are still in school) seem to be in just the right element. The charge on stage is huge from start to finish, and I think the delicate final scene will make many actors cry.
Spring Awakening is a performance that many parents and teenagers would like to see together. It might even be a good way to start a conversation with each other.