| Spring Awakening | The Hayloft Project |
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"Thoughts like that just come. Is it bad to think those thoughts. Mother? Is it sinful?"
Acclaimed Melbourne ensemble The Hayloft Project are bringing their innovative reworking of Frank Wedekind’s masterpiece of sexual discovery, Spring Awakening, to the Belvoir St Downstairs Theatre on June 24.
In a small, provincial town at the turn of the 19th Century, a group of school children struggle with their surprising sexual awakening. A gifted young man obsesses over the stirrings in his underpants while a young woman attempts to quell her undefinable, yet uncontrollable desires. But the barriers to knowledge and experience passed down from their parents and teachers only hinder and exhaust them in their quest for sexual- and self-enlightenment.
Banned for almost a century after it was written, Spring Awakening is Frank Wedekind’s acerbic attack on the repression of sexuality. It boldly investigates the ongoing battle between animal instinct and social conditioning.
Director Simon Stone says, “The play and our adaptation have more relevance than we ever anticipated in the current cultural climate in Australia. Debate over the depiction of teenage sexuality rages hotter than ever – when Spring Awakening first appeared, Frank Wedekind was labelled a pervert, he was arrested for obscenity and his work was banned in many places.
“The pressure cooker of the Belvoir St Downstairs space superbly evokes the claustrophobia of this pubescent nightmare. There is no possibility of distance – you can hear every breath, each brushing of skin, each furtive whisper,” he said.
The original play, Wedekind’s first, was first performed in November 1906 at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin in a heavily censored version. A musical interpretation of the play opened in New York in 2006 that went on to receive 11 Tony Nominations, winning 8 of them including Best Musical.
The outstanding ensemble of young actors who have come together for Stone’s 21st century interpretation of a rare classic text includes Amanda Falson (Chekhov Re-Cut: Platonov, Smashed by Lally Katz, Disco Pigs), Angus Grant (MDA, A Man for All Seasons, Neighbours), Katie-Jean Harding (Don Juan in Soho, A Mile in Her Shadow), Ben Hjorth (King Lear, The Imaginary Invalid, The Perjured City), Aaron Orzech (Rageboy, Time with Mrs Thompson, ) and Russ Pirie (Mercury Fur).
The Hayloft Project is a Melbourne ensemble led by actor and director Simon Stone, who last graced us in his role in Company B’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 2007. Their warehouse theatre, The Hayloft, opened in Melbourne in February this year with their second production Chekhov Re-cut: Platonov.
"A dark and powerful work that features violence, rape, abortion, masturbation, homoerotic love and finally death, but not in a cheap or tawdry fashion. All of these events arise as a result of the story's protagonists (a group of pubescent schoolchildren) having to discover for themselves what love, sex and reproduction mean, as no adult has the courage to share with them this knowledge and place it in its proper context. It is little wonder then that tragedy strikes" – Melbourne Stage (now Australian Stage online)
“Frank Wedekind’s classic Spring Awakening, which caused riots when it was first performed, remains confronting a hundred years after it was written, and The Hayloft Project, a new company stuffed to the gills with youthful talent, deserves high praise for bringing to the stage this very contemporary, intelligent and passionate interpretation.” – Alison Croggon
“The debut directorial gig for Spring Awakening’s Simon Stone heralds an almost alarmingly striking new talent. Stone…is proving capable of rubbing shoulders with theatre veterans twice his years.” – Real Time
The Hayloft Project and B Sharp present
Spring Awakening
Written by Frank Wedekind
Adapted and Directed by Simon Stone
Set Designer: Adam Gardnir
Costume Designer: Mel Page
Lighting Designer: Niklas Pajanti
Sound Designer: Hamish Michael
Producer: Nell Ranney
With: Amanda Falson, Angus Grant, Katie-Jean Harding, Ben Hjorth, Aaron Orzech and Russ Pirie
Venue: Belvoir St Downstairs Theatre, 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills
Preview: Wednesday 25 June
Opening Night: Thursday 26 June
Dates: 25 June – 13 July
Times: Tues 7pm, Wed-Sat 8.15pm, Sun 5.15pm
Tickets: $29/$23 (Preview $20, Cheap Tues Pay-what-you-can min $10)
Bookings: 9699 3444 or www.belvoir.com.au
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Saturday, 22 November 2008
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