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Spring Awakening
Reviewed by Paul Birchall
Deaf West Theatre at the Wallis Annenberg Center
Through June 14
RECOMMENDED:
Deaf West Theatre’s passionate staging of Steven Sater and Duncan Shiek’s musical (based on Frank Wedekind’s play) was one of 2014’s local small-theater hits, and now the production has been remounted in the grander environs of the Wallis Annenberg Theater. It’s a compelling, noteworthy production – and not just because it has become the poster child for the farm-team aspect of 99-seat theater shows that can be nurtured and grown for a larger staging. Even in the more capacious environs of the Wallis, the youthful vitality, rage, and ardor on display meld into an extraordinary intimacy that is both seductive and engaging.
Deaf West is a company that uses a variety of modalities — speech, sign language, supertitles -– to present their plays for both hearing-abled and hearing-impaired audiences. The work here is exemplary: Not just a means of communication, the use of ASL and subtitles actually serves to add Kubuki-like layers of emotion and meaning to the dialogue and music.
The cast consists of a mix of hearing-enabled and deaf performers. Roles are often paired, with a deaf performer who signs his or her songs “shadowed” by a performer who sings and voices the role for the hearing audience. The idea of two actors inhabiting the same role Patronus-style, actually has the effect of amping up the emotions and thereby underscoring the characters’ actions – as though you’re seeing the inner soul of each character.
There’s a reason why Spring Awakening is popular among young audiences – it’s this generation’s cri de couer for angst, frustrated desire, and rebellion. A few years back, the previous generation had Rent, and before that it was Hair. And before that it was, oh, Pal Joey I suppose. The play’s heady atmosphere of lust and passion is compellingly depicted – along with a marvelously evoked sense of the confusion and, yes, innocence of burgeoning sexuality.
Handsome schoolboy Melchior (Austin McKenzie) falls in love with innocent beauty Wendla (Sandra Mae Frank, nicely vocalized by Katie Boeck), but their love ends in horrific tragedy, thanks to the oppressive society around them, which views them as rebels to be crushed. Their sad story is paralleled by the equally sad tale of young rebel Moritz (Daniel N. Durant, voiced by Alex Boniello), who is unable to come to terms with his outcast status and is driven to suicide.
In director Michael Arden’s adrenaline-enhanced production, the kids rage and sturm against the authoritarian dictates of their flinty parents. There’s fornication, masturbation, and song (in voice and ASL both). It’s hard to remember a more enraged rendition of “It’s the Bitch of Living,” which is all flung chairs and thumping classroom desks. And Boeck’s vocals on “Mama Who Bore Me” are unusually sensual when played against Frank’s nubility-enhanced ASL.
The mix of deaf and hearing-abled actors provides an added dimension to the play’s themes of oppression and rebellion: A hearing-abled actor playing a teacher, for instance, brutally smacks a deaf student for using ASL not traditional speech. Elsewhere, the use of ASL provides an almost balletic subtext to Spencer Liff’s fast-paced choreography.
McKenzie’s smart, idealistic turn as Melchior melds nicely with Frank’s wide eyed innocence. Durant’s sweetly nerdy Moritz is interestingly shadowed by Boniello’s doppleganger, who, dressed in leather and with Sid Vicious hair, suggests the rock star rebel within.
Although one can’t help but think that some of the production’s intimacy has been lost in the new venue — and there is also the issue that the show sometimes seems now more like a show for hearing audiences with some ASL than a show that is for both hearing abled and deaf audiences. Yet, the youthful energy and passion drives this powerful, angry, yet wistful musical.
Deaf West Theatre at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 9390 Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills; Tues.- Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 3 and 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 and 7 p.m.; through June 14. (310) 746-4000, https://tickets.thewallis.org.
