AISLE SAY Toronto
SPRING AWAKENING
Written by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater
Directed by Directed by Michael Mayer
Canon Theatre
Playing through April 19th. 244
Victoria Street
(416) 872-1212
Reviewed by Robin Breon
This smart touring production that set
down in Toronto for a
few weeks at the Canon Theatre
is certainly worth a visit. Based on the
late 19th century German play by Franz
Wedekind, it was first
produced in 1906 and was soon censored and banned because of its
sexually explicit references and generally nihilist representations of
repressed adolescent youth. It’s the kind of thing that the German
literary critic and essayist, Walter Benjamin, and his precocious group
of friends were reading and discussing in their own adolescence about 5
years after the play premiered in a Berlin production directed by Max
Reinhardt.
Spring Awakening (the
musical) is brought up to date with a rock score
that, although somewhat monotone in its overall composition, does have
some brilliant resonance—my personal favorite being a number
entitled, "Totally Fucked",
which is performed by the entire ensemble.
I had some difficulty with the
overall directorial style of the show
that seemed to want our emotional sympathy at some points while holding
us at arm’s length camp the next. This may be because they just didn’t
trust the demands of the material enough to think that the huge leaps
of passion and youthful angst could be digested and taken seriously by
a modern audience out for a night of entertainment.
Despite this, the performances by Matt Doyle and Christy Altomare (as
Melchior and Wendla) portray the delicate encounter of first time
sexual passion with tenderness as well as urgency. Two additional
performances worth celebrating are Steffi
D in the kind of “angel in
the morning” role of Ilse, and the doomed Moritz (hyper-kinetic
one moment and morose the next) played by Blake Bashoff.
Also excellent back-up by the
eight piece band conducted by Jared
Stein
who also accompanied on keyboard.
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