Spring Performances...

Spring Awakening

Last night my friend Hannah and I went to The Kings Arms in Salford to watch a performance of Spring Awakening by Assembled Junk productions, Directed by James Baker. I heard about it as my friend Rick (who directed me in a performance of Twelfth Night at university) was one of the cast members, playing Georg, and as Hannah is a massive fan of the musical, she came along with me to support him.

I'll be honest, I am not a lover of musicals. I usually find them a bit twee and awkward, and I also had no idea about the storyline in Spring Awakening, so I didn't really know what to expect. Hannah gave me a brief breakdown before we went in, informing me that it was quite rocky and had a lot of sex in it, so sounded like my kind of thing!

The space it took place in was very small, there were only 40 members in the audience, and a live band took up most of one end of the room. The cast was made up of thirteen, who were on stage altogether at various points throughout, so you can imagine that it was quite an intimate show - at one point characters were sat on audiences knees, and singing right in their faces which was entertaining!

The plot is basically about a group of teenagers coming to terms with growing up and discovering their sexuality; and ambitiously tackles topics such as suicide, domestic and sexual abuse, self harm, masturbation and homosexuality, amongst others. It is set in Germany in 1935, and the attitudes to such issues reflect this - the leading girl Wendla Bergmann (played by Francesca Swarbrick) begs her mother in the first scene to tell her how babies are made, to which she is told that a woman must love her husband with all of her heart. Wendla later is completely confused when she becomes pregnant after having sex with lead boy Melchior Gabor (Matthew Kirk), and tragically dies when a backstreet abortion she is forced into by her mother, goes wrong.

This is not the only tragic occurrence in the musical, there are many heart wrenching examples of when the teenagers closeted lives cause them suffering, and all were performed with utmost sincerity and really evoked empathy with the audience. This performance of Spring Awakening was both hilariously funny, and desperately sad, and was a testament to why independent theatre companies really should get more praise and coverage than they do. I would definitely attend another musical or play if I saw it was by the same team, and I was hugely impressed with Rick's portrayal of his character - I didn't know he was such an awesome singer!