The third year musical theatre students at Performance Preparation Academy performed Spring Awakening to a brilliant standard, as Hattie Curl gives the performance 4 stars.
The Performance Preparation Academy’s performance of Spring Awakening was superb, brilliantly giving a modern twist to this 19th century play. Originally based upon Frank Wedekind’s controversial 1881 drama, it was scandalous in its day for directly addressing sex, violence and suicide. The whole cast produced a fantastic show which highlighted and unraveled these themes expertly through a mixture of talented acting, singing and dancing.
The staging for the play was extremely well done, really optimising the small amount of space that they had, and bringing in a great use of levels. Although thewhole cast were wearing 19th century costumes and had props from that time – for instance, the school scenes required slate boards for the boys – there was a decidedly modern twist, including incredible interspersed performances on the guitar by Luke Archer and Kathryn Tindall which seamlessly linked the songs and feelings of the characters together.
Additional live music, such as pieces on the piano, gave the performance a greater depth and allowed the audience to form closer bondswith the characters. Meanwhile, the use of the alternative pop music score by Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik and lyricist Steven Sater could have potentially deflected attention away from the key message of the story, but it masterfully added to the tale, making it relevant and hard-hitting to a 21st century audience.
The whole cast gave convincing performances and had beautiful voices. The dance choreography was erotic but not too vulgar, and really demonstrated the themes of sex expertly.
The stand out performance of the night had to be Connor Philipson’s portrayal of Melchoir as an intelligent, inquisitive young man, which was completely spot on. The whole cast had to navigate its way around the potentially difficult themes of violence, suicide and sex, yet it managed to do so skillfully. The suicide scene was hard hitting yet not over dramatic, whilst the sex scene remained tender and loving.
The only slight creative query I had was the decision to use Northern accents in this German play, but having said that, the accents were all very convincing and pulled you into this other world.
All in all it was an incredibly enjoyable evening, and was executed very professionally. Everyone produced a solid performance and it was a great interpretation of the play.
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