Spring Awakening

Frank Wedekind, Anya Reiss

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781783190980
• eBook ISBN: 9781783195978
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

Unnerving, entertaining, funny and dark, Wedekind's definitive play about youth caused riots when it exploded onto the stage in 1906 and has lost none of its provocative power. Brought bang up to date by award-winning playwright Anya Reiss this new version examines the exuberance, intensity and confusion of teenage life today. Spring Awakening asks important and pressing questions about how young people are shaped for their future by a generation that doesn't understand them.

SCENE ONE

Darkness.

A deep male voice begins;

VOICE: To the left now there is Palma Vecchio’s Venus, painted in 1520. Il Vecchio born in Italy came from a family of artists, with his nephew Antonio Palma and Antonio’s son Giacomo both coming from the Venetian school of painting. This oil on canvas is one of Vecchio’s more boldly erotic paintings…

HANS, a teenage boy, is revealed to be sitting in a public toilet masturbating, he has an open art catalogue in front of him and is listening to an audio guide plugged into headphones.

AUDIO GUIDE: …nudes in particular those painted under the guise of mythological figures had become a popular subject during the Italian Renaissance. Vecchio here seems to have taken inspiration from the great Venetian master Giorgione and his Sleeping Venus painted some 10 years previously. This interpretation of Venus is a sensual one, the figure has been idealised note the shortened calves and the lengthened torso lending itself to an exaggerated silhouette of the female form. This perhaps is an example of the artist projecting the iconography of the odalisque, a form which depicted Ottoman prostitutes, onto mythical figures. Take note of the attention Vecchio has paid to the warmth in the colouring of her skin and to where the lights reflect off her for example in the chest area and the upper thighs. If you look closely, you can see the careful shading that emphasise the contours of her naked body. If you look even closer, you can see her vagina. From the lighter brush strokes around the vagina we can discern that Venus’ pussy is in fact wet. It’s fucking glistening viewer. A hot, dripping, fishy mess waiting to be plunged into by one of the noblemen from the small rustic building on the yonder fields. In fact if you look to the path you can see two of them approaching now. Their raised hands, symbolic in Italian Renaissance art of men about to plough a pale, white, quivering, queefing, unsuspecting, goddess pussy. And those tits, which are going to be wanked into until their hands are blistered, look at them, but only briefly now because back to the vagina. I mean Jesus Christ will you look at that…

A knock on the door, a new voice from outside;

WOMAN: If there are any of the St Michael’s boys here the coach is outside waiting.

HANS: (Calling back.) Coming.

And he is.

SCENE TWO

WENDLA, a teenage girl, is in an adult’s long-sleeved sequinned top. MRS BERGMAN is being played by THEA, she has other tops on hangers.

WENDLA: No it looks stupid

MRS BERGMAN: I think it looks great

WENDLA: No everyone will laugh

MRS BERGMAN: I don’t see why

WENDLA: It’s ugly

MRS BERGMAN: I think you look very grown up

WENDLA: I look stupid.

WENDLA starts taking off the top and trying to change back into some shorts and a strap top, MRS BERGMAN offers more of her clothes.

MRS BERGMAN: No come on try this one

WENDLA: I want to wear my own clothes

MRS BERGMAN: You used to love wearing my clothes, was a real treat

WENDLA: Can I wear your dress then?

MRS BERGMAN: The blue one?

WENDLA: The black one

MRS BERGMAN: Oh no, no

WENDLA: Why not?

MRS BERGMAN: Even I don’t wear that anymore

WENDLA: It’s nice

MRS BERGMAN: I’m too old for it now

WENDLA: Well I’m young

MRS BERGMAN: Exactly

WENDLA: What?

WENDLA is confused, MRS BERGMAN tries to give her another top.

MRS BERGMAN: Just try one more, how about this one?

WENDLA: Why can’t I wear your dress?

MRS BERGMAN: It’s too short

WENDLA: It’s meant to be a really nice night, I won’t get cold. I’ll take my puffa

MRS BERGMAN can’t really answer, she hesitates.

MRS BERGMAN: Who’s going to be at this party then?

WENDLA: It’s not a party

MRS BERGMAN: Well you’re going off

WENDLA: Just to the park

MRS BERGMAN: For your birthday. That’s a party to me.

Bea...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Characters
• Dedication
• Scene One