SPRING AWAKENING
by Frank Wedekind
in an adaptation by Anya Reiss

SPRING AWAKENING

by Frank Wedekind

in an adaptation by Anya Reiss

Director: Giannis Karaoulis

From 24 November 2022

A group of schoolchildren trapped in an uninspired education system and an oppressive environment that does not understand them and that they do not understand, are attempting to learn about their bodies, their minds, and the world around them. The refusal of the family to talk about relationships and sex, the hypocrisy of society, and a problematic relationship with the internet force them to turn to each other for support – without always being able to find it.  In this modern adaptation by the award-winning Anya Reiss, Frank WedekindΆs classic masterpiece meets todayΆs teenagers, just as µawakenedΆ and just as helpless as those of the original, but in an age in which the digital world is both a means of connection and a confirmation of their isolation.

Spring Awakening, this “lyrical indictment of Puritan superstitions”, as Kenneth Tynan called it, was censored for decades for daring to ask the most important and difficult of questions. Seen through a modern lens, these same questions resonate in Giannis KaraoulisΆs production: how do we approach the other people when they are right in front of us rather than on a screen? How do we discover our sexual orientation, how do we first fall in love? With youthful tension, explosive movement, contemporary music, videos and scenes that walk a tightrope between realism and expressionism, the production embraces the audacious and poetic character of WedekindΆs work, reminding us that as long as humans exist on the planet, adolescence will always be the season of spring.

Production team

Adapted by: Anya Reiss

Translation: Sofia Grigoriou

Director: Giannis Karaoulis

Adaptation: Lito Triantafyllidou & Giannis Karaoulis

Dramaturgical advisor/Production dramaturg: Irene Moundraki

Designer: Edouardos Georgiou

Movement: Froso Korrou

Music: Diamantis Adamantidis

Lyrics: Lito Triantafyllidou & Giannis Karaoulis

Lighting: Nikos Vlasopoulos

Music coach: Melina Peonidou

Directing assistant: Irini Ampoumogli

Design assistant: Konstantsia Sarafianou

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Asimina Anastasopoulou, Dionysia Balamoti, Andromachi Foundoulidou, Anastasis Georgoulas, Christos Kragiopoulos, Lambros Konstanteas, Efstathia Lagiokapa, Alkiviadis Maggonas, Eleni Moleski, Nikolas Papadomichelakis, Giorgos Paterakis, Fani Xenoudaki

The Youth Stage of the National Theatre of Greece was created as part of the Theatre in the New School initiative which was included in the “Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning” Operational Programme of the 2014-2020 NSRF.