Talent blooms in Mobtown's Spring Awakening
Since its Broadway debut in 2006, Spring Awakening has been hailed for its powerful portrayal of teenage sexuality. Although it is called "this generation's Rent," the play on which the musical was based was, ironically enough, written in 1891. Mobtown Theater, located just outside of Hampden, currently houses Frank Wedekind's original play.
For those who have not yet been swept up in the whirlwind of Duncan Sheik music and technicolor lights on Broadway, Spring Awakening demonstrates the sexually oppressive nature of German society by focusing on the lives of adolescents. The plot centers on a handful of youth, the adults in their lives and the process of questioning everything adults teach.
Wendla Bergman, a 14-year-old girl, continually asks her mother for the facts of life but is also repeatedly denied. Although Wendla is an aunt, her mother still attempts to insist that babies are delivered by storks. Even after she confronts her mother for "the birds and the bees" talk, her mother only admits that "a woman must love her husband fully" in order to have children. She especially stresses the importance of being married.
On the other hand, Melchior Gabor, the philosophical atheist who manages to catch Wendla's attention, has a steady understanding of the ins and outs of sexual reproduction.
In order to explain them to his friend Moritz Stiefel who conversely does not yet have a firm grasp on his "masculine stirrings" and other pubescent changes, Melchior writes an essay (complete with diagrams) to explain sexual intercourse. Of course, drawing such an explicit and "immoral" booklet does not go without consequence in the play.
Other topics include homosexuality, child abuse, suicide, rape and masturbation; no theme is too taboo to explore in Spring Awakening even though Wedekind wrote the play more than 100 years ago.
But despite the entertaining subject matter, there are still a few problems with the play itself. The first act alone runs a little under two hours, and the second lasts a little under one hour. Although an intermission allows the viewer to escape from the heaviness of the subject matter for 15 minutes, it still feels long. Several scenes dragged out in such a way that even the talent of the actors couldn't rescue it.
For those who have not yet been swept up in the whirlwind of Duncan Sheik music and technicolor lights on Broadway, Spring Awakening demonstrates the sexually oppressive nature of German society by focusing on the lives of adolescents. The plot centers on a handful of youth, the adults in their lives and the process of questioning everything adults teach.
Wendla Bergman, a 14-year-old girl, continually asks her mother for the facts of life but is also repeatedly denied. Although Wendla is an aunt, her mother still attempts to insist that babies are delivered by storks. Even after she confronts her mother for "the birds and the bees" talk, her mother only admits that "a woman must love her husband fully" in order to have children. She especially stresses the importance of being married.
On the other hand, Melchior Gabor, the philosophical atheist who manages to catch Wendla's attention, has a steady understanding of the ins and outs of sexual reproduction.
In order to explain them to his friend Moritz Stiefel who conversely does not yet have a firm grasp on his "masculine stirrings" and other pubescent changes, Melchior writes an essay (complete with diagrams) to explain sexual intercourse. Of course, drawing such an explicit and "immoral" booklet does not go without consequence in the play.
Other topics include homosexuality, child abuse, suicide, rape and masturbation; no theme is too taboo to explore in Spring Awakening even though Wedekind wrote the play more than 100 years ago.
But despite the entertaining subject matter, there are still a few problems with the play itself. The first act alone runs a little under two hours, and the second lasts a little under one hour. Although an intermission allows the viewer to escape from the heaviness of the subject matter for 15 minutes, it still feels long. Several scenes dragged out in such a way that even the talent of the actors couldn't rescue it.
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