I recently went to the musical Spring Awakening at Krannert. It is a contemporary, rock musical set in Germany in the late 1800s. It is the story of a bunch of teenagers on the brink of adulthood and how they handle the transition. IT's a story of physical abuse, sexual abuse, love, sexuality, school, and death. Much like White Boy Shuffle, it starts out funny, and gets really dark but ultimately has a deep message to take away. The main theme of the show is the danger of ignorance embodied by a class of adults unwilling to spoil their children's innocence.
The show has two central plots and then a bunch of side stories. I'll start with the detours. One includes two boys who discover that while all the other boys fantasize about the mysterious opposite sex, they have feelings for the much more accessible boys. They have to figure out how to tell their crush and live with their different perspective. Even though they end up connecting, they struggle to figure out what to do with their feelings because being gay is nowhere near being on their radar they don't even know it is an option. Another story is that a girl was forced to leave the village in the play when she got pregnant. She joined a gypsy camp, out of fear and rebellion, but soon enough she wanted to come home and have a family. She couldn't though, too much shame. The other significant plots involve physical and sexual abuse of the girls in the show by their fathers.
The central plots involve the three main characters, Wendla Bergmann, Melchior Gabor, and Moritz Stiefel.
Moritz isn't a good student. He's barely getting by and unable to focus due to his mind lusting for things he knows nothing about. Melchior Gabor comes to the rescue. Melchior is a radical free-thinker. He's a star pupil yet a bother to his teachers who don't want his opinion but just for him to regurgitate their ideas. Melchior realizes the confines of what adults will tell him and looks elsewhere for answers. When Moritz asks him for help Melchior tells him all the things he's found out. Moritz is horrified.
Wendla Bergmann is obedient and kind but she wants to know more and her parents won't tell her --not even about how her sister got pregnant. She, Melchior, and Moritz were childhood friends but once they became teenagers and the boys were separated from the girls, they grew apart. Her world is so full of things she doesn't understand until she reconnects with Melchior. She's walking alone outside her village when she sees Melchior under a tree. Not unpredictably, they fall in love and Melchior has an internal battle about whether or not he can burden her with his knowledge. He thought knowing things would make him freer but it also alienates him from his peers.
Meanwhile, Moritz finds out that he has BARELY passed his classes by sneaking into the administrative office and looking at his grades. So he's happy that he's not going to fail out of school and Wendla and Melchior are happy because they actually feel something deep enough to affect them. The act is almost over so things have to start getting dark. After Wendla finds out that her friend is beaten with a belt, she talks to Melchior and tells him she's never felt pain. She rips a switch from a tree and demands he beat her. It's a really horrifying scene to watch but it yanks emotion from both parties and they part full of rage and fear. The story continues to darken when Moritz's teachers fail him, even though he has actually passed, because they feel he is a disgrace. Moritz must return home to tell his father the news.
The act ends with Wendla and Melchior is a hayloft together, Wendla trying to make amends. They kiss and Melchior begins to undress them both. Wendla protests and protests but slowly allows Melchior to go farther and farther. It is hard to tell whether Melchior overpowers Wendla, Wendla consents to his advances, or if she even understands what is happening. In the midst of this scene, the curtain falls.
Act two.
Moritz has been thrown out of his house and after failing to accrue enough wealth to flee to America, is wandering around the streets with a gun, planning to end his life. After an interaction with a childhood friend, he can stand life no matter and kills himself. During an inquiry into his death by school officials, an essay about sex written by Melchior and given to Moritz is found and Melchior is expelled and sent to reform school out of town.
With Melchior gone, it appears that Wendla becomes chronically ill until a doctor tells her mother she is pregnant. After her mother screams at her, Wendla figures out the connection between the hayloft and the baby and writes Melchior a letter. Her mother secretly finds a "doctor" willing to abort the child. When Melchior receives the letter, he escapes boarding school and races to get home to Wendla to marry her. However, shortly after Wendla's doctor's appointment, her mother takes her to the "doctor" who is going to get rid of the child quietly, Wendla completely unaware of the consequences.
After a grueling trip. Melchior returns home in search of Wendla and goes to their meeting place in the cemetery, Moritz's grave. Next to his best friends grave is a fresh plot. He wipes the leaves and dirt off the gravestones and reads the name "Wendla Bergmann". He pulls out a razor from his pocket and holds it to his throat, dreaming of his two friends and the life they could have had. Before he can commit to killing himself, visions of Wendla and Moritz come to him and tell him to continue and help them live on into adulthood and never let their stories be forgotten. He eventually decides to continue on and live his life with them in mind.
It's definitely a harrowing show but I thought the themes are very relevant to our class this semester.
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