Spring Awakening: A Play

by Frank Wedekind and Francis J B Ziegler

Book Overview

From Jonathan Franzen, bestselling author of The Corrections and Crossroads, comes his razor-sharp translation of Frank Wedekind's major modern play, Spring Awakening.

Featuring an introduction by Franzen.

First performed in Germany in 1906, Frank Wedekind's controversial play Spring Awakening closed after one night in New York in 1917 amid charges of obscenity and public outrage. For the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 086547978X
• ISBN13: 9780865479784
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

From Outrageous to Hilarious ...

... in just a century! There's little doubt in my reading mind that Benjamin Franklin Wedekind (conceived in San Francisco, born in Germany, miseducated in Switzerland) meant to shock the socks off the bourgeois public when he wrote 'Frühlings Erwachen' in 1891. It's a play about teenagers -- yes, Virginia, there were teenagers in 1891 -- doing things that even adults couldn't do on a conventional stage; there are explicit scenes of rape, suicide, homosexuality, and masturbation. One teenage girl is a debauched artists' model, and a childish playmate! One 14-year-old girl is beaten and abused by her father, and another envies her for it. The latter pesters her mother for the 'secrets of reproduction', finds herself incomprehensibly pregnant after the rape, and dies in an abortion. "Spring Awakening" was first staged in Germany in 1906, in a heavily censored version. It played in New York for one day in 1917 but was condemned as obscenity. I wonder, would an audience in 2009 find this play horribly shocking, or would we smugly guffaw at the 19th Century moralities that it mocks. I have a feeling that the world has been so thoroughly Wedekinderized since 1891 that we'd need real blood and nudity on stage to be sufficiently shaken up. When the central character, the boy Melchior, is sent to the reformatory, for instance, he joins a circle of boys competing for a coin by trying to be the first to spurt semen on it. That might startle even a New York audience today. Gnarly stuff, eh? Nevertheless, Wedekind meant his play to be uproariously funny, and it is. The scenes in which the adults - parents and teachers - reveal their utter hapless in consequentiality are fresh and witty still. The unexpected appearance of a ghost, the boy Moritz who'd blown his head off, in the final scene is a brilliant absurdity. This translation, by Jonathan Franzen, seems to me to catch the sardonic tone of Wedekind's original German very effectively. Even if you may never see a decent production of Spring Awakening, it's well worth reading, as the first vernal flower of the modern theater.

great play -- feels very contemporary!

I heard Franzen speak about how unfaithful the recent NY production was to Wedekind's anarchistic perspective. This is a brash and funny send up of modern society's sexual hypocrisy. Fast read, too.

In light of this play, society hasn't changed much today

I assigned this play to my drama class this fall. At first reading, I witnessed my students' eyes light up and watched them get involved in serious introspection and discussion for the first time. They were inspired. One ignorant parent contacted school administration, and the play was officially banned from our school and the classroom. What a shame. Sad to say...the narrowmindedness of parents haven't changed much in 100 years. Maybe this parent should read the play and then try to get to know her teenager a little better.

A Theater Dork's Review

Spring Awakening is the best thing since sliced bread amoungst my school's theater junkies. With the new musical, it almost obtained a cult like following. While the music of Spring Awakening is beautiful, Frank Wedekind's original play is simply stunning. As a teenager myself I was able to connect with the characters and understand their troubles. While parents might look down on this play as something else that might corrupt their children, I really believe that this is a show that teenagers to see/read. I really recommend this play for teenagers, but also for adults. It really gives the reader a greater level of understanding and leaves you thinking about it for hours afterwards.

Spring Awakening is an indepth look at teen life.Brilliant!

Recently observing an adapted performance of Spring Awakening I was stunned at the confronting and amazingly written script of Frank Wedekind. Although written over one hundred years ago the issues involved are still plaguing the children of todays generation. The play is interesting and easily related to by teenage children aswell as older audiences. I thoroughly enjoyed myself while watching the play along with all my companions