Directors James Alexander and Stella Pryce’s take on Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening, while not perfectly polished, is a play that is hauntingly beautiful and definitely worth seeing. A worthy challenge for a Freshers’ play, the directing, acting and technical work of Spring Awakening all fit together to produce a piece of drama that is both chilling and contrastingly comedic in places. Despite a fairly slow Act 1, the play manages to create a perfect juxtaposition between the comedic nostalgia of innocence and the new entrapments of adulthood that are vital themes to this particular coming-of-age play.

The set is minimal, which does not serve to deteriorate the standard of the play, but instead to enhance it. A completely white set consisting of one tree and one swing is just enough to draw the audience into the disenchanted reality of the play’s themes while emphasising the absurdity that is the pain of growing from a child to an adolescent. This subject is thoroughly explored by both the actors’ individual character development and the relationships shown between the characters as a whole. One particular relationship that is beautifully developed is that of Wendla and her mother, with the respective actors playing their parts to perfection. The sheer volume of emotion shown by the cast as a whole was an integral part of the play, with each individual character intertwining with and adding to the plotline and motifs originally given by Wedekind. Throughout Spring Awakening, silence is also a technique used well by the cast. It is effective as their powerful use of silence leads to a conveyance of a barrage of emotions, as well as giving the audience implicit details that may have been missed first-hand through dialogue.

While the play is a little slow to begin with, it picks up the pace by the end of Act One, and the second act is a veritable roller-coaster of emotions. Opening Act Two with a three split-stage effect is a risky, yet effective move, as the actors manage to maintain a good balance between the three strands of plot. On the other hand, this technique does lead to a few lines sounding lost while the cast try to dissolve three split scenes into one. However, this is almost to be expected, so the play loses a negligible aspect of its story and it does not take away whatsoever from the main themes of the play itself. 

Although it is admittedly a play that is a little rough around the edges, the lack of perfection adds to what is already a gritty play about the journey from childhood to adulthood. The cast of Spring Awakening tap into the core emotions felt at this point, enhancing the plotlines and, at some points, making it a truly difficult play to watch. There is no solution given to the problems faced, but the happiness and comedy juxtaposed with the depravity of certain situations leads to an amazingly put-together play that is well worth watching.

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