Spring Awakening

In Claudia Bühlmann’s version of Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening, the action condenses into a single night: the night Wendla Bergmann celebrates her birthday. A theatre group is rehearsing Wedekind’s play.

The birthday party is the centre of everything. As the evening goes on, what began as harmless games among the young people turns steadily more serious, bringing deeper truths and hidden feelings to the surface. Their games mirror the central conflicts of the original: desire against reality, truth against lie, individual freedom against what society expects. Then life interferes, and the line between the real world and the dreamed one begins to blur.

Bühlmann keeps the themes, problems and questions of Wedekind’s characters and moves them deftly into her own version. Simple means and a great deal of movement in a single room create a dense, intense atmosphere that carries the essence of the play.

This modern Spring Awakening holds up a mirror to young people today: their struggles, their hopes and their fears in a world full of pressure and expectation. A story with a historical origin and a thoroughly contemporary message.

Performed in German. Cast, production team and tour dates are listed on the German page.