Transitions: A Spring Awakening Play

Drama@NUIG
Mar 06 2020 Posted: 19:03 GMT

Third Year Drama and Theatre Studies students created a new devised adaptation of Frank Wedekind's classic groundbreaking 19th century coming-of-age play Spring Awakening which was performed 21-24 March 2019  at NUI Galway’s O’Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance.  Initially banned from the stage and censored throughout the 20th century in Europe and North America, Spring Awakening’s frank and haunting treatment of adolescent sexuality, depression, suicide and academic pressure has been an artistic and social lightning rod since its early 20th century German premiere.  

Transitions: A Spring Awakening Play transposed the action of the play to a contemporary Irish context and follows three young people, Dougie, Alex and Clara, and their immediate circle of friends and family during an eventful spring. The pressures of academic study and sexual discovery overwhelm these three friends’ ability to navigate the challenging circumstances that they each find themselves in leading to individual and collective tragedy.  Has Ireland come as far as we think we have? How should we understand the ongoing mental health crisis among young people? And if someone commits an unforgivable act, how should their story end?

Devised by the Ensemble | Directed by Charlotte McIvor | Movement Direction by Jérèmie Cyr-Cooke

Running: 21-24 March 2019

 

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