Spring Awakening

StageArt’s new production of the Tony Award winning Spring Awakening is a dynamic and propulsive musical experience with terrific songs and led by a talented cast. Directed by Robbie Carmellotti, Spring Awakening follows a group of teenage students growing up in a strict and repressive Germany circa 1891. With no sexual education and a syllabus that is heavily censored, they are ill-equipped to understand the changes their bodies and minds are undergoing.

At the forefront of the cast are Jessie-Lou Yates as the naïve and earnest Wendla and Ashley Roussety as the brilliant and atheistic Melchior. Both give powerful performances as their friendship blooms into something deeper and unknown, their restraint and formality when around one another contrasting heavily with their bombastic musical performances and fluid dance choreography. The performances all round are great with Luisa Scrofani a particular highlight as Martha, a friend of Wendla’s who is beaten and sexually abused by her father. Her rendition of ‘The Dark I Know Well’ is a poignant and moving account of a tragedy that even in 2017 is still far too common.

The overall design of the show is remarkable, segmenting the stage into three raised platforms angled away from the audience and creating movement with a distance and a depth that, along with a strong use of lights and changing colour, consistently provides a visually stimulating experience. Though, as expected on opening night there were a few teething problems, the biggest being the use of handheld microphones for the majority of the musical numbers as the need for the cast to conceal them and then bring them out when needed proving awkward, threatening to draw audiences out of the story. A small problem but one that should be refined.

Filled with moving performances and songs that will stay with you for days after, Spring Awakening is a wonderful night out at the theatre and a heartbreaking story about the need for a free and honest society.

Spring Awakening  
Chapel off Chapel, 12 Little Chapel Street, Prahran
Saturday, 20 May to Saturday, 10 June
chapeloffchapel.com.au