BWW Reviews: SPRING AWAKENING Brings Purple Summer to Dublin

Once the stork flies the coup, the maturing youths of Frank Wedekind's 1891 play are left in the dark when it comes to sex, finding no answers in the classroom or at home. The difference with Duncan Shiek and Steven Sater's musical adaptation, first staged in 2006, is that they get to rebel with the verve of rock stars.

It's gutsy of the Ill-Advised Company - the musical theatre outfit of Adam Tyrrell, Andy Carberry and Sarah-Jane Williams - to move on from the economical and zany [title of show] to mount this beast. Yet, it's no coincidence that during one of the first songs 'Bitch of a Living', when the volume of some performers is an issue ("Sing out Louise!"), that these are the three that sing out loudest.

The folk-infused rock score is realised with moody guitars, keyboard, and keening strings under Sinéad Diskin's excellent musical direction. Newcomer director James O'Connor has the action play out on Fiona Patten's raised set, which smartly allows for levels and conceals the orchestra pit, but also extends too far centre to allow the players to play in the half-round of the Smock Alley Main Stage.

With schoolteachers and parents at the frontline (a bouffant-wearing Debbie Hart and a steely Stephen Murray, both credited simply as Adult Woman and Adult Man), this portrait of a society willingly withholding sexual realities is timely in a year where posters around the country presented smiley children with slogans such as "Surrogacy? She needs her mother for life" and "Children deserve a mother and a father". It's incredible to think that the line "I'm pregnant? But I'm not married!" gets an easy laugh from an Irish audience when not too long ago it wouldn't.

The dramatic draw of the production is Kevin C. Olohan as the restless Moritz, who is driven mad by erotic dreams until his book smart classmate Melchior (Tyrrell) writes him an essay explaining the details of sex. Such truths are overwhelming ("Still, you must admit ... with the two anatomies ... it truly is daunting"), with Olohan bursting across the stage as if he has everything to lose.

Secondary players have no problem taking hold of the spotlight: every one of Carberry's lines seems to land like a punch line; Thomas Kane Byrne's swagger and soulful voice are unmatched; and watch Nicole O'Connor come to life in a song about a girl's abuse at the hands of her father ("You say all you want is just to kiss goodnight/Then you hold me and you whisper 'Child the Lord won't mind").

In all this, Wendla the female lead gets lost, as O'Connor treats the sweet-sounding Megan McDonnell mostly as a pretty object. Also underplayed is the deprivation of gender identities that propel Wendla and Melchior towards violence. The clear emasculation is not well charted by Tyrrell, who jumps to extremes rather than building towards it. Rather, he is better self-possessed when lost in the music, blasting out the lyrics of the misanthropic anthem 'Totally Fucked'. It's in these moments when Ill Advised's production feels like less than a struggle and more like an awakening.

Spring Awakening runs at Smock Alley Theatre until 1 August. For more information and tickets, see smockalley.com. Photo: Tom Maher.

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