Spring Awakening | Bouquets & Brickbats

24/08/26

theSpace@Surgeon’s Hall, Edinburgh

I’ve said this before: it’s mind-blowing to think that Frank Wedekind’s Frühlings Erwachen was written way back in 1890, when Kaiser Wilhelm II ruled the Deutsches Reich, Queen Victoria was on the British throne and Robert Gascoyne-Cecil was our PM. Not that anyone was brave enough to stage it right away – it wasn’t until 1906 that the transgressive play premiered at Berlin’s Deutsches Theater.

A whole century later, Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s musical adaptation opened on Broadway – and this is the version we’re seeing today. You might think a contemporary adaptation would go further than the original, but it’s actually not the case. Yes, there’s more swearing, but there’s a softer ending – and no rape or masturbation scenes.

Nonetheless, this still feels like a bold piece for a school to take on. The very fact that I find myself thinking They must have a really progressive head teacher and I wonder if all the parents are on board just proves how relevant the play’s themes still are. These students are the same age as the characters, and Wedekind’s whole point was to illustrate the dreadful consequences for young people of silence, censorship and repression.

Set in Germany, in a conservative provincial town, Spring Awakening tells the story of a group of teenagers, forced to abide by a very strict set of rules that no one ever explains. Wendla (Melody Moppett) asks her mother (Alice Davidson) to tell her how babies are made, but Mrs Bergmann is too embarrassed to explain. “You have to love your husband,” she tells her daughter, leaving her horribly ill-equipped to deal with her burgeoning sexuality. Wendla finds herself drawn to Ilse (Minna Williams), who ran away from her abusive home at fourteen and now appears to enjoy a bohemian lifestyle in an artists’ colony. What Wendla doesn’t know is that Ilse’s freedom carries a heavy price.

Meanwhile, Moritz (Greg Cameron) is struggling to keep up with his studies, working day and night, unaware that his fate has already been decided. “There are only sixty places in the final year,” says Headmaster Knochenbruch (Rufus Pilcher). There’s no room for Moritz, whatever grade he achieves – but his father won’t forgive him if he fails. What’s a boy to do?

Hänschen (Alexander Christie) and Ernst (Joe Ridley) have their own problems: they know how they feel about one another, but they’ve been taught that homosexuality is a sin. Still, as ever, love and lust prove stronger than societal disapproval. They might just be the happiest characters in the play.

On the surface, Melchior (Jasper Simmons) is better off than the others. His mum (Davidson) is relatively open-minded; she’s raised her son as a free-thinker and taught him about sex. As a result, he’s seen as the fount of all knowledge by the other boys. He’s also a thorn in the side of the Headmaster, and an easy scapegoat when things go horribly awry…

This is a very ambitious project and, for the most part, Kingston Grammar School’s KGS Theatre Company pulls it off. Meg Christmas’s direction is impressive: there are a lot of bodies but the stage traffic and choreography run like clockwork – no mean feat in a performance space without any wings, just an awkward opening upstage centre. I also like the simple set: stage blocks are positioned in regimented formation, with cleverly-concealed pockets behind them, holding microphones and minimal props.

Musical director Mark Laflin provides keyboard accompaniment, augmented by cast members Williams, Ridley and Catherine O’Shea on acoustic guitars.

The whole cast work well, both in their individual roles and as an ensemble, but the standouts for me are Moppett and Williams, who both have beautiful singing voices and imbue their very different characters with strength and vulnerability. Allegra Kelly also offers a strong performance, evoking our sympathy as the maltreated Martha.

If you’re looking for a lively, provocative start to your day, I recommend you take yourself to the Surgeon’s Hall for this high-octane, fearless production of Spring Awakening.

4 stars

Susan Singfield

12/03/25

Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh

It’s mind-blowing to think that Frank Wedekind’s Frühlings Erwachen was written in 1890, when Kaiser Wilhelm II ruled the Deutsches Reich, Queen Victoria was on the British throne and Robert Gascoyne-Cecil (nope, me neither) was our PM. In a world where women weren’t even allowed to show their ankles, it’s not surprising that it was sixteen years before someone dared to stage this controversial exposé of the dangers of repression, with its bold depictions of teenage sexuality – not to mention rape, suicide and abuse.

Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s musical adaptation premiered on Broadway in 2006, exactly one hundred years after Wedekind’s play finally opened at Berlin’s Deutsches Theater, under the direction of Max Reinhardt. Despite the addition of some banging rock songs and more than a few profanities, this modern version actually pulls more punches than the original, most notably by omitting the rape and softening the ending. Nonetheless, it still has the capacity to shock, and to remind us that we make sex dangerous by hiding it, by making it taboo.

Set in 19th century Germany, this is a story about a group of young people coming of age under the stifling weight of moral expectations. Wendla (Hattie Sumners) asks how babies are made. Scandalised, her mother (Sophie Davis, who plays all the adult women) first shouts and then equivocates, condemning her daughter to an ignorance which will have severe consequences. Meanwhile, Moritz (Shaun Hamilton) is struggling to keep up with his schoolwork, and fear of failure takes him to a devastating place. Melchior (Daniel Fischer) seems stronger than the others: thanks to a combination of intelligence and a liberal mother, he’s more knowledgeable than his friends, and therefore better equipped to cope with life. Still, the authoritarian regimes of school and church soon drag him under too; no one is safe in this society.

Theatre Paradok’s production succeeds in conveying those most fundamental of teenage emotions: exuberance and despair (I’m guessing the student cast don’t have to dig that deeply to remember how raw and overwhelming those feelings can be). Sheik’s eclectic soundtrack is beautifully interpreted by musical directors Nonny Jones and Ruairidh Nicholson, the choral numbers being particularly impressive. The live band – hidden in the wings – are terrific, and plaintive solos by Sumners, Gemima Iseka-Bekano (Ilse) and Hamilton evoke some strong responses.

The show’s aesthetic is great. I love the androgyny of the costumes, with feminine dresses worn over masculine suits; the queer coding is fabulously done. The set is simple but very effective: items of underwear are stapled to a curtain framing a large gauze backdrop, onto which short animations and live videos are projected, creating an ethereal doubling effect and amplifying the characters’ emotions.

Directors Rue Richardson and Jane Morgan manage their large cast with aplomb. The play is dynamic and visually very appealing, from the arresting choreography (by Františka Vosátková, along with Richardson, Morgan and Andrea Adriana Prawono) to the boisterous shenanigans of the teenage boys. The gauze curtain makes metaphors literal: dead characters appear from ‘beyond the veil’, while ‘a veil is drawn’ over Wendla and Melchior’s lovemaking. However, Ernst (Michael Butler) and Hänschen (Max Middleton)’s homosexual relationship is placed boldly centre-stage – perhaps a subtle nod to the idea that some things shouldn’t be re-closeted.

I do have one criticism, and it’s the emergency exit door, stage left, which is open to the elements. Bedlam is a chilly venue at the best of times; tonight, with an outside temperature of 1°C, I could do without sitting in a freezing draught. And it’s not just the cold that’s a problem, there’s the noise of the city too: traffic and sirens and people passing by, all making a claim on my attention. I can see that the options are limited by the need to house the band, but – for the sake of one entrance and one exit – it’s surely not worth making the audience so uncomfortable.

Nevertheless, this production of Spring Awakening is a triumph: a lively, thought-provoking piece of theatre, as relevant now as it was more than a century ago.

4.2 stars

Susan Singfield