By Ryan Pike
A common saying in the entertainment industry is “sex sells.” Historically, though, sexual content in a play often coincides with that play shutting down early. Such acclaimed works as Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession and Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire have seen productions ground to a halt on account of their more titillating content. Mount Royal College has chosen to close out its season with a production of Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening. The play, originally performed in Germany, features a myriad of human behaviours-including masturbation, abortion, homosexuality and suicide-along with a rather colourful history.
“When it was played in New York in 1917, it was allowed one performance, and that was a matinee and then they closed it down right after that,” explains director and Mount Royal instructor Kevin McKendrick. “The reason I got excited about it was a year ago at Christmas, I was in New York and I saw the musical Spring Awakening, which is based on the play. It’s sort of like a rock opera and it won the Tony Award for Best Musical last year. It was just a terrific experience.”
Despite containing the same content as the original, the musical Spring Awakening didn’t make an impression on McKendrick due to its subject matter. Instead, he was struck by something else.
“What really knocked me out was the audience was made equally of young people and parents,” says McKendrick. “It wasn’t a show that looked like a family show per se and it wasn’t a show for adults that were just taking their kids along. Both segments of the audience were equally captivated.”
When he returned to Calgary, McKendrick began putting the wheels in motion to bring Spring Awakening to the stage. He notes the Mount Royal production, utilizing a translation from the original German by British playwright Edward Bond, remains
accessible to audiences despite having been written many years ago.
“What’s special about the play is that it’s told from a young person’s point of view,” shares McKendrick. “The best description that I’ve heard on the play is it’s this withering attack on a society that places a higher emphasis on outward appearance than on the natural instincts of its young people. Because all the major characters are those young people, you do get a more genuine perspective on the issues.”
McKendrick notes that the composition of the cast made conveying the message of the play easy. Portraying the play’s older characters posed more of a problem.
“The protagonists are about 14 or 15 years of age and we’ve got people in the cast who are 18 or 19,” he elaborates. You don’t have 30-year-olds trying to play 15-year-olds. The challenge for us was on the other side. How do we get the older adults playing parents or school headmasters to come across as being authentic? What we’ve done is go with a more expressionistic interpretation so that all the teachers, for example, are more androgynous. They’re actually all played by women, but they’re not trying to be men and they’re not trying to be women, so it has a more stylistic approach. All the adults are more representational and the other people are played as truthfully as we can possibly do it.”
Given Spring Awakening’s colourful history and subject matter, it’s may seem prudent to warn audience members of the squirm-inducing scenes taking place. McKendrick admires the boldness of the play and its cast and personally opposes advisory notices.
“I’m opposed to the idea of putting out audience advisories,” he says. “As long as you do things tastefully, I don’t think you should have to be warning the audience about life. This is a show that deals with teenage confusion and sexuality. It’s not just about sex, it’s about peer pressure and surviving and excelling at school under difficult circumstances. I think it’s a compelling story and it’s told really well by this very talented group of performers.”
Spring Awakening runs Mar. 27�29 at MRC’s Wright Theatre.