The new section “Jupz!” at the Theater Plauen-Zwickau brings the needs of young people to the small stage of the Vogtland Theater in Plauen with “Spring Awakening”. Can an old play captivate today’s young audience?
Right now, when the mild late summer seems to refuse and we already think we are in early winter, spring is awakening on the small stage of the Vogtlandtheater. “Spring Awakening!” premiered on Wednesday. And it was a special one. Because the piece by Nuran David Calis based on Frank Wedekind is the first production of the new category “Jupz!” (Young Theater Plauen-Zwickau).
Brian Völkner is in charge of the Jupz’s artistic direction and he directed “Frühlings Awakening! Live Fast – Die Young”. “Think theater differently. Experience it in a new way. Every moment is a celebration. That’s my wish for our Jupz,” is the credo of the 30-year-old division manager. So he is still relatively close to the target group himself. And it is obvious that the theaters have to think about something in order to retain young audiences in the medium and long term. But it is not an easy task to convince young people with a very old institution like the theater that functions analogously. But it’s not an insurmountable task either, like the queer “As you like it!” in Dresden. could already see at the Staatsschauspiel in the still young theater season. One recipe could be to pick up young people in their living environment. That worked very well in Dresden, and in Zwickau, too, Brian Völkner has set a promising sign of respect with his first project.
This is not at all self-evident, because Nuran David Calis only cautiously transformed the aged Wedekind piece, which was published in 1891 and had its premiere in Berlin in 1906, into the present. But some things don’t seem to change either. And even today, daughters fight with their mothers about the right outfit, children and young people are hit by their parents, there are (too) early pregnancies, pubescents harbor suicidal thoughts or are dominated and abused by fathers or are undecided in their sexual orientation. All of this is the content of the play, which Völkner did not stage as a good narrative drama. On the contrary.
Wendla (Yasmin Dengg), Martha (Carlotta Aenne Bauer), Melchior (Marcel Frank) and Moritz (Philipp Rosenthal) are already romping about on stage to techno sounds when the rows of students slowly fill up. As a result, Wendla works on her mother in a very shrill voice, which she parodies over and over again in the most malicious way. Melchior gets his first erection in a dream involving his mother and harbors feelings for Moritz. The cool Martha is hit by her father with a rolling pin, wooden spoon or belt. She is in love with Moritz, but does not dare to confess her love to him, who has completely different concerns. He dreams of a treasure from his ancestors in America. He annoys his friends with this redundantly told story. It’s a mental escape because his promotion is in jeopardy because of poor grades. His father plays a nasty game, who talks the school administration out of the possibility of a transfer. Director Dirk Loeschner plays this father and talks to his son from the video wall with an evil eye and a fighting dog as a status symbol in tow, and everyone knows: you don’t want a father like that!
Director Brian Völkner has come up with some ideas to captivate the young audience. It’s flashy and colorful – true to the motto “wildness is a necessity”. Giant cakes and giant cheese wedges come onto the stage, people take a shower (naked, of course) in the outside area of the theater (but the camera is always there) or rub their oversized breasts, a pony trots onto the stage. Martha also turns into a superstar and holds a never-ending monologue, apparently improvised and very, very funny. In between, the protagonists haunt the video as goblins through an empty city center in Plauen. There’s a lot of slapstick and grotesqueness to be seen, which at times overshadows the serious moments and tragedy of the very well-acted characters. On the other hand, Völkner managed to inspire the young and, by the way, very smart audience, and one can be very excited about the next Jupz productions.
More performances von Spring Awakening There are October 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 27th and 30th. The premiere in Zwickau is in the old gasometer on November 3rd.