Spring Awakening: Triggering?

[thebettermanatee]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 12:13am

Question for those who have seen the recent production of Spring Awakening:

I would love to surprise my friend with tickets to the show, but I'm aware it deals with some heavy subjects, including suicide, abuse, and rape. My friend underwent sexual trauma as a child and has struggled with mental health since then, and I'm worried about the show being upsetting/triggering. I have seen multiple (amateur) productions of the show; can someone who has seen it comment on how upsetting the rape scene is? I would hate for her to miss this show; she would find the songs hilarious, she's been teaching herself sign language for the last year, and she LOVES Marlee Matlin. But the last thing I would want is for her to be triggered.

So what I'm basically asking is. . . I know the show is heavy, but exactly HOW heavy is this particular production?

 

[haterobics]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 12:15am

Maybe don't make this a surprise? That seems to be the safer course. No one else can determine what will "trigger" a person they don't know.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 12:28am

Yeah, there's no way for any of us to determine what she'll find upsetting. I can just echo haterobics with saying not to surprise her.

Have you seen the show before, though? This scene is at the end of Act 1 and is sort of replayed at the top of Act 2.

[rcwr]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 12:34am

I agree with haterobics. Tell your friend about the show and the topics it covers, let her read some synopses of it, and let her decide.

[LightsOut90]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 12:36am

I've never considered it a rape scene...

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 1:03am

It's not really portrayed as a rape scene in the musical but is often interpreted as such in the original play.

[CindersGolightly]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 1:19am

Lea Michele, the original Wendla, confirmed that in the musical (at least in her interpretation) it was consensual. In this production, I'd say it's the same, or even more so consensual than in the original. You never hear Wendla saying the word "no", nor is there a struggle. I would be more worried about "The Dark I Know Well" triggering your friend. Just mention to them that it's heavy, and main themes are suicide and abuse, and sexual assault. Let them decide their comfort level based on existing factors without spoiling it.

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 1:22am

I suppose the reason why it's considered a rape scene is because Wendla is pictured as excessively naive, thanks to the failure of her mother to tell her about the facts of life. So she doesn't understand the consequences, the way Melchior presumably does.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 1:27am

By today's standards she can't consent to something she doesn't understand.  

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 2:12am

SPOILERS

I can't speak to what would trigger someone else, not having the same triggers and also not being as moved as others have been by the production. Personally, I found the narrative too chopped up to be that affected by the abuse/rape issues with Martha and Ilse. I think the actress who plays Martha does a beautiful job but I don't think it attains that much emotional depth. If she can listen to it on the album I don't think it would bother her on stage. But again, I'm not sure.

 

"In this production, I'd say it's the same, or even more so consensual than in the original. You never hear Wendla saying the word "no", nor is there a struggle."

 

As for Wendla, I disagree greatly. Unless they changed it from previews, she says no repeatedly and pushes him away. She also doesn't say yes. It's part of the reason I thought dividing the role created so much of a power imbalance because Morritz coerces her and she can't really voice an objection. She "consents" by "allowing" him to move forward and laying back. You can make a strong argument that it's a rape scene. It's played as him overcoming her concerns but it's difficult to see it as any more romantic than the earlier scene where she asks him to hit her and then ends up apologizing later.

[CindersGolightly]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 2:37am

Maybe they changed it since the transfer, but in LA, she didn't say no, nor did she push him away. Honestly I've never been a huge fan of saying it was consensual. But Lea felt strongly about it being consensual, and since the show was truly written around her, I thought it would stay consensual in the script. I'm thrilled that they added Wendla's Voice saying no. Love doesn't equal consent.

[diablo_dancer]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 7:38am

Joining to say that I definitely agree with the suggestion to talk to your friend about the show and let her do some research. When I saw it just over a weeks ago, the woman I was sitting next to was visibly having trouble with the material. In the first act she put her head in her hands for a few minutes after Martha's abuse reveal and ended up leaving midway through act two after another distressing scene.

[MVintheheartland]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 9:37am

Just curious--why do you want to take your friend to this show knowing her current mental status? There are lots of other shows on Broadway. And I agree with above posters, if you must take her to this show, give her a heads up first. 

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 9:47am

She explained this, MV -- her friend loves sign language and Marlee Matlin.

So, another point to make: Marlee Matlin doesn't get to do very much in the show. It's more like a cameo. (There is one memorable moment in a box seat, but not much else to remember.) So, if that's the reason you want to take your friend, Manatee...

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 12:23pm

Even though it's not about her exactly, if you really loved Marlee Matlin I do think she has a fair amount to do in this show. And of course you could always stage door to see her afterwards.

[Taryn]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 3:06pm

Definitely just talk to your friend and be frank about it.  A lot of times people who have triggers don't necessarily need to avoid these topics entirely, but do much, much better handling them with warning and the ability to prepare their heads.  (I can still remember the strength of my reaction to the suicide in the original production, and that was before I lost my own brother to suicide; it still hit harder seeing the revival, but I would definitely have wanted to know it was coming if I hadn't seen the show before.)  This is one of those instances where you just have to sacrifice the pleasure of a surprise to the kindness of being kind and thoughtful to your friend.

(PS it's totally rape because even if she DID say yes she literally has no idea what it is she's consenting to.)

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 3:10pm

I could be remembering wrong, but I seem to remember Lea Michelle talking about the scene at the time. She said off-broadway had a stronger rape interpretation they were never fully comfortable with, but when they were rehearsing for broadway (or maybe at the end of the run at the Atlantic) that she would give Melchoir a very clear head nod yes.

In the same interview she mentioned that the director asked her to be topless offbroadway via a post it note. They talked about it and they decided since the theatre was so small, she got to decide every night if she exposed herself or not. Again, they made a choice for her to always expose herself on broadway.

[CindersGolightly]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 3:34pm

Yup! That was for Seth's Broadway Chatterbox interview just after the Tonys.

[LuminousBeing]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 11:46pm

I saw this in previews last Saturday, so it may be changing nightly, but I clearly remember that after Wendla lies back, Melchior asks and signs, "yes?" And Wendla signs and her "voice" says, "yes." Of course, by today's standards, Wendla is both too young and too naive/uneducated to consent to sex without understanding the consequences and I'm not making a statement that this was an act between consenting adults in terms of the conventions of today, but when I saw  the show, the scene was not played as a "traditional" rape scene with a struggle. I found the beating scene to be more harrowing (in a "good theater" way). 

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 10/2/15 at 12:08am

"I'm not making a statement that this was an act between consenting adults in terms of the conventions of today, but when I saw  the show, the scene was not played as a "traditional" rape scene with a struggle."

 

To clarify, I'm not making that argument either. She's not hitting him as he physically overpowers her. It's definitely walking a line. It kind of reminds me of an after school special/educational video. She's resisting him at first. The way he still keeps moving forward and asking her why I would describe as coercion. To me it came across like a subtle way of pressuring her. I didn't get a sense of "yes, this is what I really want, thank you for talking my through my initial moral hang ups" but of her submitting to his dominant desire and personality. The specifics are starting to fade from my mind but I remember walking away from it and finding it more problematic than romantic.

[Taryn]

Posted: 10/2/15 at 1:05pm

I mean, Melchior even talks earlier in the show about how amazing it must be for a woman to basically fight/protest and then submit to a man.  Really, I think it's a big indication of how Melchior reading up on all the physical facts about sex doesn't actually mean he knows everything about sex -- he clearly doesn't really understand or appreciate the emotional ramifications of it all.  Melchior doesn't escape from the overwhelming oppression of ignorance, even when he tries.  His attitude towards sex is clearly based on some unhealthy ideas, which is clear when he pressures and coerces Wendla into sex.  He thinks this is what she wants, because that's the idea he's formed about what feminine pleasure is based on, so he insists upon it.  Neither of them know enough about what they're doing.

[LuminousBeing]

Posted: 10/3/15 at 11:33am

@VintageSnarker - it's definitely "more problematic than romantic!" The way this production plays it makes that clear without having to go to the less subtle, less dramatically interesting, and more potentially camp "her hitting him as he overpowers her," route. In addition, it makes it believable when Wendla later tells her mother that she "just wanted to be close to him," and felt like that was the way to do it, even if she wasn't really comfortable/clearly didn't understand the ramifications of that choice.

[devonian.t]

Posted: 10/3/15 at 12:26pm

The Dark I Know Well also has the potential to be very upsetting...

[rjm516]

Posted: 10/3/15 at 12:27pm

You specifically mentioned sexual trauma as a child, which points to Martha's scene. Have her listen to her song "The Dark I Know Well" before making any decisions and get her opinion. No one else's matters. 

[rjm516]

Posted: 10/3/15 at 12:31pm

Also everyone please never use the phrase "traditional rape" again. I get that you understand what you mean but there's no such thing and it contributes to our culture's very very messed up understanding of what rape is and all the subsequent problems that causes.