Spring Awakening

Forgive my lack of updates recently. I've been ill last Friday and I've had a really packed weekend!

First off, this Saturday, I went with a good friend of mine to watch the Spring Awakening musical here in Manila, held at the RCBC theatre.

We're lucky enough to get good loge seats, and our view was excellent!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this theatre production, Spring Awakening is a play first done in 1891 by Frank Wedekind. It was initially banned for show in Germany due to controversial topics [more about that later]. It tells the tale of a group of teenagers, mainly Melchior Gabor, the "perfect" student -- always getting good grades and is a role model to his peers, Moritz - the goof, he's tagged as a failure, and is very curious about women, Wendla - an innocent girl who eventually falls for Melchior, and Ilsa - she's the "rebel" -- she is living in the streets.




I loved this musical! It is absolutely fantastic -- the music was so good [it was written by Duncan Sheik], it had me singing the lines "blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah" after we have already left the theatre and was on our way to a second-hand bookstore. This soundtrack is currently on queue on my download list. The performances were great, but there were some downsides:
1. There are some scenes that got me all confused -- some characters did not have the proper closure that I expected [ie Ilsa and Melchior]; also the adult parts got me confused as well. Who's the parent of whom? If only one actor plays one female adult and one male adult, and you would only have one costume the whole play, wouldn't you get confused as well?
2. Not enough props -- there was a part where Melchior was supposed to be in a graveyard and there were tubes everywhere, but uh.. the Manila production didn't even have fake tombstones in the area.

Guess those are the downsides and ups for now.


Now, for those of you who are going to watch [in other countries, or for the next run of this play in Manila, whenever that may be], here's some things you have to prepare yourself for: *a bit of spoilers. Skip this part if you want to be totally surprised*
1.  There's some instances of masturbation that were shown in the play. It's not the explicit kind, of course, but still, don't be shocked.
2. There's some breast & butt exposure [but I heard that there was nudity in the other country's version? can anyone verify this? I am off to surf reviews from other countries after I post this]
3. Suicide is tackled
4. They talk about sex
5. Male kissing is also included [yes, the homo kind, not the bromance kind]
6. Abortion

Overall, the play is very good, its worth my time and money. It's one of those plays that made the hairs at the back of my neck stand up. Good, good, good. Actors were also awesome [Joaquin Valdez is good as Melchior, but the dude that played Moritz? Hats off to you, you were also good as well], the venue is in the Central district as well so it is very accessible!

I think the last run of the play here in Manila was last Sunday, October 18th, but hey, here's wishing to another run!

After the concert, we went off to a secondhand bookstore, and I snagged myself a copy of "The Duchess" by Amanda Foreman. Whee!