Last Friday, the lovely folks over at NYMT brought us along to their inaugural production, Spring Awakening. NYMT was founded earlier this year by many of the same people responsible for last year’s sell out run of Rent at the Olympia. A huge fan of the show, I jumped at the chance, eager to see if this talented group could strike gold twice.
Spring Awakening is a musical, albeit one with a difference. Based on the 1891 play of the same name by German playwright Frank Wedekind, Spring Awakening follows the lives of a group of young teenagers on the eve of their sexual maturity. Set in 19th Century Germany, the show juxtaposes an authentic period setting with a contemporary rock score. Banned in Germany for almost a Century due to its explicit and controversial subject material the musical debuted in the States a few years ago and is now enjoying its Irish premiere at The Helix.
Spring Awakening is like no other musical you have ever seen. Abandoning, for the most part, the traditional musical convention of having characters engage with each other through song, the characters instead utilise their musical interludes to express their inner dialogue. Breaking the fourth wall, they pull microphones from their pockets and engage directly with the audience. It is in these moments that the genius of the piece is most apparent. The modern music acts as a medium with no barriers or restrictions, contrasting severely with the repressed and rigid society the children find themselves in, and highlighting the timelessness and universality of the issues they are struggling with. The award winning rock score features some truly remarkable and unforgettable songs.
The production values are fantastic, the set an impressive replica of the original, and everything from the sound and lighting to the costumes are first rate. Mention also has to be given to the phenomenal young cast, proving that we do indeed have the home grown talent needed to support professional productions of this calibre. Most in their early 20s and some even as young as 17, the talent on display here is equal to anything on offer from more established production companies or actors anywhere in the country.
However the production is not without its flaws, being at its best when sticking closely to the winning formula of the Broadway original, the many minor deviances proving, for the most part, unsuccessful. The most noticeable of these being the distractingly large ensemble, far bigger than utilised in previous professional productions, the addition of in many cases twice as many extras to scenes adding little to the overall effect and in many cases detracting from it. There are certainly moments where this show drops all pretext of subtlety and indulges in being brash and loud, however director John Donnelly seems at times to take this approach and apply it to moments where it doesn’t belong, moments that would better be served by understated subtlety. It struck as though Donnelly had in places, lost faith in not just the source material, but also his audience, magnifying these moments so they were obvious and unmissable. There are also times when the pacing seemed off with silences rarely being given the time required to settle.
Regardless of these issues, the production on the whole is still very impressive and hugely enjoyable. Spring Awakening is a powerful and thought provoking play. Leave the Fringe behind for a day and make the trip out to The Helix for 2 hours of theatre the likes of which you won’t see on stage again for a long time.
Spring Awakening is running at The Helix until Friday. Tickets are €15/€20 and are available from www.helix.ie
