WHAT: Spring Awakening
WHERE: Seacoast Repertory Theatre
BLURB: Some Things Never Change, And May Get Worse
HIGH POINT: A Powerful Story
Spring Awakening is a coming-of-age tragedy for the times, though the piece is set and originally written in the late 19th century Germany.
The musical, with book and lyrics by Steven Sater and music by Duncan Sheik, is based on the eponymous dark play by Frank Wedekind, penned in 1891.
Don't expect cute teens dealing with acne and school skipping with this one. Awakening takes lots of disturbing issues head-on - suicide, teen sexuality, abortion, pedophilia, hypocrisy and violence among them - with mere moments of the more wink-and-nudge teen-associated issues.
Though this production plays with the script's late Victorian setting, using modern technology as both theater conceit and prop, the prevailing mores of the original time remains, and underscores how little has changed.
A rock musical (with an intersting score), it's set in a Christian-immersed culture, the private and school life reflective of the controlling and suppressive factors of its adults and period.
The storyline unfolds in episodic manner, a take in a classroom, a private home, a meet-up in the woods or another location where the characters reveal themselves largely through their songs as well as conversations.
Directors Ben Hart and Brandon James have mixed it up, starting with the time-bending. The production is less dependent on factual era, and more on artful presentation.
As is often their style, the two employed numerous art forms and interpretations, some to great effect, (the cell phones and projections for example) others less so (the fabric water and admins' personas), but collectively its interesting and intriguing.
What they've done in spades is casting, and character development.
The largely adult performers - to a person - convincingly portray the younger teen characters; the assuredness and gravitas of an intellectually challenging boy, the skittishness and fear of insecurity, the lightness of naivety, and the jaded personas of those whose lives forced maturity before its time.
Sophie Mings is a perfect, and believable naive Wendla, overprotected, underprepared, and eventually lost.
Spencer Skip Stewart is a strong, intense and thoroughly convincing Melchior, the boy too thoughtful for his place and time.
Jason Faria delivers a poignant portrayal as Moritz, a depressed, introverted kid, so sure of failure, and disapproval.
Both Ben Hart and Alexandra Mullaney smartly deliver a wide range of Adult Authority Figures.
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