Customer Reviews

Spring's Awakening

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

So quickly does amnesia set in with age!

One generation is barely finished acting out the final throes of its rebellion before it turns to condemn the morals and values of the generation which follows. We see this today, of course, but it is nothing new, as Wedekind's play - written a century ago - brings to light with a startling clarity.

Abandoning any pretence of objectivity or realism, Wedekind's A Spring Awakening tells the timeless story of one generation's struggle to come to grips with the emotional and physical changes of adolescence, in the context of the earlier generation's social and sexual mores. As Wedekind makes very clear, it is not the natural impulses of youth that are corrupting, but rather the attempts of the adults to control these impulses by layering them with guilt.

Wedekind's exploration of these themes, while decidedly (and intentionally) one-sided, is a beautifully crafted piece of expressionist theatre. After seeing this play performed, I found myself thinking of it for days; after reading the script, further layers of both meaning and ambiguity came to the fore.

Recently observing an adapted performance of Spring Awakening I was stunned at the confronting and amazingly written script of Frank Wedekind. Although written over one hundred years ago the issues involved are still plaguing the children of todays generation. The play is interesting and easily related to by teenage children aswell as older audiences. I thoroughly enjoyed myself while watching the play along with all my companions

Told in simple yet compelling language this play tells the story of adolescents attempting to grow up and understand the adult world with all its mysteries, especially sexuality. The parents and teachers they encounter however are too obsessed with being "respectable" citizens to be able to honestly deal with the thoughts and feelings of their own children. The result is tragedy for all involved.

Spring Awakening is the best thing since sliced bread amoungst my school's theater junkies. With the new musical, it almost obtained a cult like following.

While the music of Spring Awakening is beautiful, Frank Wedekind's original play is simply stunning. As a teenager myself I was able to connect with the characters and understand their troubles. While parents might look down on this play as something else that might corrupt their children, I really believe that this is a show that teenagers to see/read.

I really recommend this play for teenagers, but also for adults. It really gives the reader a greater level of understanding and leaves you thinking about it for hours afterwards.

There has been renewed interest in Wedekind's most famous play, following the Broadway musical adaptation of it (currently on tour) achieving some success. Also keeping this 1891 play in print is the fact that it is a favorite text for University German courses. It certainly is a milestone in German theater, anticipating the Expressionist movement by a few years and shaking up audiences then and now and, given the explicit sexual acts called for by the script, it can in more than one sense be described as a 'seminal' work.

The play satirizes the sexually oppressive society of fin de siècle Germany, in a straightforwardly polemical, full-frontal manner. It is, to put it mildly, a challenge to anyone wanting to stage it with any fidelity to the script. That's one reason why it's worth reading, rather than just seeking out an actual performance. You'll find the musical adaptation, for instance, a good deal different from the original text.

The many Biblical and Classical references in the play will be lost on most modern audiences, although they would have been familiar to contemporary audiences and authentically part of the education of the characters portrayed. Today, we need editorial help and Eric Bentley provides this. Those footnotes and the translation itself are fine. I am less happy with the 'Ten Notes' that Bentley provides as an introduction. They are rather self indulgent and include 3 pages of very poor verse, for which I assume Bentley is responsible. So if you want to delve deeper into the historical context and cultural significance of the play, you will need to supplement this text with other critiques. Fortunately, there are many available online.
[PeterReeve]

I assigned this play to my drama class this fall. At first reading, I witnessed my students' eyes light up and watched them get involved in serious introspection and discussion for the first time. They were inspired. One ignorant parent contacted school administration, and the play was officially banned from our school and the classroom. What a shame. Sad to say...the narrowmindedness of parents haven't changed much in 100 years. Maybe this parent should read the play and then try to get to know her teenager a little better.

A controversial play published in 1891, not performed until 1906, and adpated into a musical in 2006, Spring's Awakening is the story of children facing the beginning of adolescence within the repressed culture of 1892 Germany. This edition, translated and edited by Bentley, contains a number of mini-essays by the editor on everything from the play's timeline to some of its key themes. This commentary is interesting if artless (and, combined with the sprinkling of typos, begs for an editor), providing an adequate introduction to the play and plentiful food for thought. To those that have seen the Broadway adaptation, the original play will be familiar--and that does no harm to either version. The musical updates (without losing) the play's historical setting and rounds out the rest of the cast (in particular its women), making it more approachable, broadening and highlighting its essential truths: it's a catchy, intense, relevant performance and, with a few exceptions, a successful adaptation. The original play, meanwhile, is deeply invested in its historical setting and the youth of its characters, and offers stronger protagonists foiled by a shallower, utilitarian supporting cast; despite being blatantly controversial it relies on understatement and implication, a combination to gives the reader pause and the story depth.

And where the ending of the musical falters, dissolving into a saccharine musical number that simply shoves aside the play's themes, the original final scene is brilliant: Melchior's conversation with Mortiz and the Man in the Mask is a somewhat more concrete, much more ambiguous, complex conclusion which develops the play's themes--its relationships, social and biological, between life, sexual awakening, and death--while refusing to tie them up in a neat, completed package. This difference may be the reason to prefer, or at least explore, the source material, but familiarity with the musical is hardly the only reason to pick up the play: Spring's Awakening is a swift read (although I'd love the chance to see it performed on stage), but it lingers on the mind. It has its weaknesses, as do Bentley's essays, but the birth of life bringing all its dangers of death, the moribundity of society and the indescribable beauty that arises despite it, approached with irony, humor, and palpable love make Spring's Awakening a success--and it doesn't even need to be a show-stopping musical. I recommend it.

we are going to do this play in drama class, so I read it and was amazed. the plays we put up before were more classical like shakespeare and this seemed to be something a teenager can really relate to. I think every teenager should read this book with it's surprising ending.

I admit I was intrigued to read this play both because I am going to see the musical adaptation in New York and because of the controversy surrounding the content for over a hundred years. The numerous forwards are tough to slog through at times but the play itself is a great read and really captures the angst of youth. Read in 1890 or 2007, this play is relevant to all of us who remember the strange and scary trip that was or is puberty.

Who'd have believed that this work, first created in 1891, could still be just as accessable and classic today? But it was - and is- although it was surrounded by a swirl of controversy when first published. The play focuses on teen sexuality, abortion, angst, guilt and all the throes of puberty and adolescence. As of this writing, it has received many Tony Awards, well deserved.
If you don't have a chance to see the play in person, this is the next best thing. If you'd like to hear the music, check this out:

Spring Awakening (2006 Original Broadway Cast)