Lazy Susan Theatre Co.’s ‘Spring Awakenings’ Is A Provocative Tale
Spring Awakenings is a provocative show about a group of teenagers who are coming of age and have no answers about what is happening to them. Left to solve the mysteries on their own, they find themselves walking down roads they never would have expected. Check it out!
In 1891, Frank Wedekind, a German playwright, wrote the play Spring Awakening. It has also been translated as Spring’s Awakening, The Awakening of Spring, and various other ways, but its subtitle is A Children’s Tragedy because it is not a happy tale. The story was risqué at the time, covering teenage desire, sexual assault, and suicide, and it continues to be a subject for discussion today.
You may have heard of or seen Spring Awakening the Musical which was on Broadway and has been produced around the country since 2006. That is just one version of the play based on the original. The new production of Spring Awakenings from Lazy Susan Theatre Co. has created its own version, and I would say that it is closer to the book than any previous version I’ve seen, with some major moments of interpretation.
Spring Awakenings is the story of a group of young teenagers who are blossoming into adults. They are aware that their bodies are changing, but their culture and foundation live in such secrecy about “those things” that the children are left stifled – and left to their own devices. Wendla, a fourteen-year-old girl whose sister has had three children, knows that her parents want her to wear longer dresses and that the stork has visited her sister, but is completely unaware of why and how.
Melchior is a teenage boy fascinated by the female form and sex, and offers to teach his friend Moritz what he doesn’t know, writing him an essay on the topic. Moritz, who struggles with his grades and carries the weight of possibly not qualifying for the next school level, is distracted by his desires and desperate to please his parents and society by being enough. Various other characters realize that they are gay, promiscuous, and/or abused by their parents, each letting someone else in on their secret.
The subject matter of this play is and has always been salacious and this production does not shy away from that. There is a scene where Melchior beats Wendla because she has asked him to, but he gets carried past what he thought were his limits. There is a sexual assault scene where, while the actors remain separate, the red lights, sounds, and tension provide an intense emotional impact on the audience. There is a masturbation scene where the female object of the boy’s desire appears as his love interest, who is another boy. This show does an excellent job of taking things right to the limit and leaving you with questions.
Everything is set in farm country, complete with wooden slatted-walls, wooden ladders overhead, and moss growing upward. The ensemble stays on stage for almost the entire show, sitting off on the sides in chairs, many holding instruments that get played throughout. Hymns and songs also get sung periodically, which help to set the stage for where and when you are in time.
There are a few specific choices that I enjoyed about this production in particular. First, the parents of the teenagers are played either by someone of the opposite gender or by an entire group of actors onstage, each contributing to the conversation as the same parent. Melchior’s mother, for example, is played by Nicholas Ford Kinney. Mr. Kinney wears his school uniform as a student, but adds a gray skirt as Mrs. Gabor. There is nothing monumental about someone of one gender playing a different gender, but in this show, where most cast members are cast as their gender, it is a subtle statement that plays beautifully.
Additionally, when Wendla asks how one gets pregnant, her mother struggles to tell more than a stork delivering a baby. Wendla inquires whether the baby came in through the chimney or the window, and suggests she asks others to investigate. With Wendla’s mother stuck and figuring out how to explain this to her daughter, it is the majority of the cast, scattered around the edges of the stage, answering her. Sometimes speaking one at a time and sometimes on top of each other, it evokes the mother’s anxiety and how big this situation is for both her and Wendla, having six or seven actors play one single character together.
The entire cast is invested and passionate about this production, but Bryce Lederer is a standout. Moritz runs the gamut of emotions through the show, and the way Mr. Lederer takes his time with each conversation and monologue or soliloquy as well as the introspection and energy behind the words, it helps you understand Moritz and is a definite highlight.
Spring Awakenings pushes the limits in the same way that I imagine Frank Wedekind would have hoped for when he was writing the play over 100 years ago. It is creative, unusual, and reminds us that, even today, it is important to keep asking questions and pushing the limits. Check it out and see what you think!
Spring Awakenings runs for approximately 105 minutes with no intermission. With themes like sexual assault, suicide, sexual situations, and abuse, this is appropriate for anyone 16 years old and up.
Lazy Susan Theatre Co. Spring Awakenings Chicago Review – Spring Awakenings is playing at Lazy Susan Theatre Co. through 5/11/2025. Tickets can be purchased on the Lazy Susan Theatre Co. website or by calling 773-404-7336. This production is located at The Greenhouse Theatre Center at 2257 N Lincoln Avenue in Chicago.