Spring Awakening

Written by Frank Wedekind, in a new version by Anya Reiss
Directed by Andrea Ling
Tron Theatre Glasgow, 2025

Theatre

Performed by RCS’ BA Acting in British Sign Language and English, with captions.   

  • Set & Costume Design Lu Herbert
    Video Design Daniel Hughes
    Sound Design Nova Sound
    Lighting Design Kai Fischer
    Assistant Director Emery Hunter

    Intimacy Co-ordinator Sharon Mackay
    Movement Support Ruxy Cantir
    Fight Director Rob Myles
    Voice Support Mel Drake

    BSL Consultants Rita McDade & Amy Helena

    Production Manager Gavin Johnston

  • From its inception, Spring Awakening has been censored—banned in early 20th-century Germany, threatened with closure in the U.S. in 1917, and still sparking controversy well into the 2000s. But its themes—sexuality, queerness, rape, and suicide—remain just as contentious today. Conversations about adolescence, sex, and identity are increasingly fraught, as political and cultural forces seek to suppress or distort them.

    In an age where right-wing rhetoric, online echo chambers, and the rise of the manosphere shape perceptions of relationships and power, teenagers are at risk of absorbing a skewed, often dangerous version of reality. We’re facing not just censorship, but an epidemic of misinformation. Adolescence is a beautiful yet difficult time, made more complex by the internet, where the line between truth and fiction is increasingly blurred.

    Reiss’ version fearlessly confronts these issues, and crucially, it does so on the teenagers’ terms. Here, they are the auteurs—they drive the storytelling. Our production has been a deeply collaborative process between cast and creatives, ensuring an integrated vision that is both ambitious and urgent. Spring Awakening remains as vital as ever.

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The Earthworks