The story of growing up is universal to audiences everywhere. Spring Awakening offers the growing up experience as a visceral reality. The musical format adds the glossy sheen we're so used to while the content is raw and painfully truthful. Spring Awakening focuses on an intelligent radical, Melchior (James Raggatt), his love interest, Wendla (Jessica Rookeward), and his intellectually struggling friend, Moritz (Josh McElroy). Raggatt gives a provocative performance as the honest young man who sees an alternative to the "parentocracy", the authoritarian system run by the older generation, and in doing so runs a dangerous gauntlet. He acts as a catalyst for the issues that Wendla and Moritz must negotiate. Rookeward's performance is one of genuine innocence and naivety and builds in the audience such a sympathetic connection that we cannot help being drawn along on her tragic path. Special mention goes out to the comedic acting of Patrick Diggins (as Hanschen). The relief his poncy gaiety delivered added light, which made the tragedies all the more morbid.
The set is minimal, acted out on a red floor divided into a grid. The cast, using minimal props or just their bodies, offered a fantastic percussive accompaniment to the musical ensemble, which performed the music with great energy and finesse. The lighting was fantastically coordinated and added a creative layer that only truly talented lighting design can achieve.
ATYP's Spring Awakening is a pleasure to engage with. The script is relevant, and the production a joy. For a fun night out that will tug at your heartstrings, get down to ATYP.
