SPRING AWAKENING. Book/Lyrics: Steven Sater. Two-act musical: Duncan Sheik. Based on the play by Frank Wedekind. Producers: Anton Luitingh, Duane Alexander. Director: Sylvaine Strike. Choreographers: Anna Olivier, Naoline Quinzin. Set/Lighting/Costumes: Niall Griffin. Sound: David Classen. Presented by: Luitingh Alexander Musical Theatre Academy (LAMTA). Theatre on the Bay.
SHEILA CHISHOLM reviews
The title of Duncan Sheik’s musical Spring Awakening is a double entendre. On the one hand, it suggests mother earth awakening to the beauties of spring after her long winter sleep. On the other, it relates to adolescents awakening to the extra-ordinary changes happening to their bodies and emotions.
It’s all set off at the start with blonde, blue-eyed, sweet-voiced Wendla’s (Scarlett Pay) first song “Mamma Who Bore Me?’, which expresses her yearning to learn what went into making her birth possible.
The boys, led by Melchior (tall and handsome Dylan Janse van Rensburg), are equally perplexed. Most disturbed of all is frail, unhappy Moritz (Johnathan Conrad). The importance of being touched and touching is slowly dawning on both sexes (“Touch Me”), and they perform Anna Olivier and Naoline Quinzin’s clever ‘hands on’ choreography with abounding energy and growing excitement.
Excellent standard
Set in a provincial German town in the 1890s, the girls’ simple indigo blue pinafore frocks, blouses, pantaloons and hair worn in traditional German styles (plaits and braids) are typical of the oppressive society of the period. The boys, all similarly dressed in shorts, braces, shirts, jackets, knee length socks and school shoes, speak of a uniform society where everyone is expected to fall into the same line.
Set designer Niall Griffin’s high black slatted-shutters and the three tiered stage all add to the growing feeling that tragedy will come to these young people seeking to uncover the mysteries behind their mental and physical turmoil.
Team Luitingh and Alexander can always be relied upon to produce a work of interest which is thought provoking and often unusual. They also have an impresario’s gift of gathering around them the right band of people to bring out the essence of any (new to the audience) work. They have excelled for Spring Awakening. Performers experienced and inexperienced all pull their weight. The company have been taught and trained to an excellent standard. Roses to them all. I’m pleased to have seen Spring Awakening. You will be too.
UPDATE: With sell out houses and five star rave reviews across the board, LAMTA has announced today that Spring Awakening, the riveting rock musical, directed by Sylvaine Strike, will be returning to Theatre on the Bay by popular demand on 8 March 2024 for an extended season. The hit production will transfer to Pieter Toerien’s Theatre at Montecasino in Johannesburg from the 12th April 2024.
What: Spring Awakening
Where and when: Theatre on the Bay until 3 December 2023
Tickets: Webtickets
Info: Please note that Spring Awakening contains mature themes, partial nudity, sexual situations as well as explicit language. No persons under 13
Pictures: Claude Bernardo
WS
