Life Confronts Theater

IN THE FINAL SCENE of Spring Awakening, Melchior (Jeff Rossman) crouches in an area of the stage placed amid the audience. He faces a "graveyard" of actors, each sitting in front of a television set, eyes riveted on the screen. He listens to the ghost of his dead friend. Moritz (Christopher Moore) attempt to lure him center-stage, into the graveyard. Moritz, heavily made up, gesturing dramatically and Melchior appearing plain and vulnerable under a dim natural light, create a startling contrast. As Moritz describes the wonders of death, the escape from pain, suffering and memory; Melchior listens silently, confused and afraid. Their confrontation is one between theatricality and human drama.

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The original script of Spring Awakening, written by the German playwright Franz Wedekind, is a brilliant presentation of adolescent sexuality and societal oppression which is at once melodramatic, satirical and tragic. Director Paul Warner's sensitivity to both the theatrical and human dimensions of the script is reflected, at times brilliantly, in his adaptation of the play for Harvard Summer Theatre.

Warner and musical director Richard Shore incorporate a wide range of musical styles in the production--from Cole Porter to Rogers and Hammerstein, to Vangelis. The music works surprisingly well, illuminating a particular mood, heightening or relieving the tension of a particular scene, but is most effective as a means of drawing out the opposition between theatre-as-entertainment and theatre-as-human drama. The two extremes complement one another, the theatrical play creating something positive from the tragic experiences Wedekind presents.

It may seem absurd (logically, not dramatically) for the cast suddenly to burst into a Broadway show tune in the moments before Moritz commits suicide, but, in another corner of the stage, Melchior sits, horrified, eyes riveted on his friend, seemingly oblivious to the joyous, life-affirming music. Here, Melchior seems to be neither actor nor spectator; he appears merely human and helpless.

Sexual energy and tension are the primary unifying elements of the production. Actors often pace back and forth across the stage during dialogue in a strange form of pursuit and evasion, particularly when the subject of the dialogue is sex. Each scene is replete with suggestive gestures and glances; a strained argument between Melchior's parents becomes an almost threatening seduction scene. Eroticism quickly becomes a constant in the play. As a result, the overtly sexual scenes, often shocking and brutal in the script, appear almost cathartic on stage. Sexual suggestion appears as perversity and repression in contrast to a starkly honest masturbation scene.

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The three young students whom the play focuses upon most each confront conflicts of sexuality and societal morality, duty and impulse, identity and faith Moore-gives strong expression to the internal pressures and tensions which eventually drive Moritz to suicide. He also infuses a warmth and innocent humor in this portrayal which manages to capture the often self-parodying nature of the character without detracting from the tragedy of him fate.

The innocence and bewilderment of Wendla is played out strongly by Jennifer Burton. She effectively rouses sympathy for Melchior and the adults' abuse through her almost pathetic naivete. Rossman strongly evokes the intellectual maturity and instinctive sexuality which characterize Melchior. Forced to witnes the suffering of his friends, condemned by his parents, he experiences painful feelings of guilt and self-hatred. Rossman makes Melchior one of the most human characters of the play giving genuine expression to the frustration, anguish and loneliness of his character. Also notable is Paul Martignetti (Hans Rilow), who performs one of the most difficult episodes of the play, a masturbation scene during which he lies alone, center-stage, delvering one of Wedekind's most passionate monologues with unsettling honest and emotional force. The rest of the cast energetically support and sustain the play through numerous changes of style and mood.

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There are some awkward moments in Spring Awakening, some innovations which simply don't work, but for the most part the play is jarring and shocking in an adventurous, appealing way. The vitality and creativity of the Harvard Summer. The vitality group are well represented in this, the first play of the season Spring Awakening is a daring theatric production and a strikingly human drama.