Spring's Awakening
In a world of 24-hour-a-day Britney Spears coochie shots and gay pride rallies in the streets of West Hollywood, it’s hard to imagine a time when all mentions of sex were hushed, and nature’s salacious impulses were kept behind closed doors. But Frank Wedekind’s “Spring’s Awakening,” lays bare the natural sexual curiosity of young children in a an era of Victorian repression, and the harm done by the “moral insanity” of a too rigid society.
The Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble has revived this play, once banned for its pornographic content, and has certainly done it proud. Director Evan Drane treads the fine line between realism and caricature by juxtaposing bawdy scenes of masturbating youths, elbows jogging furiously, with quiet moments of reflection, to create a piece that captures all the angst without becoming overwrought.
The actors are outstanding and do a fine job capturing the feel and language of the time. Nick McDow is excellent as Moritz, the squirrely young man wracked with anxiety about his grades, his life, and his stirring sexuality. His character is sympathetic, but never maudlin.
Moritz’s best friend and confidant Melchior (Luke Bailey) is sensational as well. It’s his self-penned sexual manual that leads Moritz down a tragic road Melchior himself refuses to travel, but his strong will and fearlessness drive the story. His character is an excellent embodiment of the dual nature in all of us, portrayed most starkly in a riveting scene with Wendla (Eleanor van Hest) which depicts the blurry commingling of sadism and sex.
In the opening of the second act, Wedekind’s mastery is in full flower. In a scene where the school administration is debating the appropriate punishment for Melchior’s misdeed, the playwright’s words flow together with a richness perfectly delivered in all their pomposity by Isaac Wade as the windy headmaster. And you can’t help but love someone who would introduce a character named Miss Knuppeldick!! The administration’s obsolescence is indicated by the dusty coating on their robes and mortarboards, and Wedekind leaves no uncertainty that he finds society and adults very much responsible for the tortured ignorance of youth.
People, least of all young people, cannot be expected to make reasonable choices when they are shielded from the facts--especially in matters of sex. Wendla learns about the birds and the bees in a humorous scene with her mother (Morgan Early) in which she’s assured that babies arrive when a man loves a woman completely, conveniently leaving out the bit about intercourse. Frau Bergmann delivers this lesson with her daughter’s head hidden under her skirt so that she won’t suffer the embarrassment of looking her daughter in the eye.
One might concede that the pendulum has swung wildly in the other direction in recent years with the seemingly endless display of lewdness and vulgarity on television, billboards, and in film. Indeed, a recent “pregnancy pact” in a Massachusetts high school in which sixteen girls became pregnant, is a poor testament to the notion of learning too much too soon; but as Wedekind’s contemporary Thomas Hardy once wrote, “Life being a physiological fact, its honest portrayal must be largely concerned with, for one thing, the relations of the sexes.” If nothing else, “Spring’s Awakening” accomplishes that.
Spring’s Awakening can be seen at The Powerhouse Theatre in Santa Monica through July 26th. General admission is $20. Call (310) 396-3680 xt. 3 or visit www.latensemble.org for dates and times.