SPRING AWAKENING young stars defend their characters

Before arriving to the West End, London’s SPRING AWAKENING had an eight weeks engagement at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, with all the venue sold out. Having the chance of watching any of this performances was amazing. Audience reacted with enthusiasm after every touching number. The performances were filled with emotion and mesmerized audiences from the very first moment.

After two years on Broadway, SPRING AWAKENING, the musical of Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater based on Frank Wedekind´s controversial novel, arrives now to the West End ready to conquer the European public with a story even more nearby, because it is placed in the Germany of the 19th century.

SPRING AWAKENING tells one of the most shocking tales of the recent history of musicals. Through the innocent look of the young main characters and a powerful band of rock, tells a touching story, sweet and bitter, that turns in wheel the adolescence sexual awakening, and the repression that they suffered by society and religion, not too different from what could happen nowadays, though more than 200 years have passed.

The same creative team who were in charge of the Broadway production moved to London to direct this one. After an arduous process of casting, the selection of the cast was closed. Most of the actors are debutants in the genre. Young performers around 20’s that have caught exactly the essence of their characters, doing an impressive work under Michael Mayer´s direction.

Aneurin Barnard as Melchior, Charlotte Wakefield like Wendla, Iwan Rheon as Moritz and Lucy Barker as Ilse stand out in the cast. They tell us about this controversial musical.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO TAKE PART OF SPRING AWAKENING AND TO MAKE YOUR WEST END DEBUT WITH THIS SHOW?
Anuerin Barnard: It means so much. I am very grateful to be part of SPRING AWAKENING. I can’t think of another show I’d rather be in for my West End debut.
Charlotte Wakefield: To be part of this brilliant show is a dream come true for me. I saw the show in Feb 08, before I even started auditioning for the London show and fell in love with it. Its just so tragic and haunting yet, uplifting and beautiful. I came away for the Eugene O’Neill Theatre wanting to see it again and again and again! I said to myself, if there is one show that I have to be involved in (even if its sweeping the stage), it has to be SPRING AWAKENING. I have been, in my opinion, the lucky person on this earth! I have been dreaming of being on the West End stage since I could remember. I have always loved musicals and theatre and to now be performing in London’s West End is just breathtaking for me. I’m still very much living on a cloud!
Iwan Rheon: It’s great being part of such a fresh and exciting show.
Lucy Barker: Honestly, words can’t describe what it feels like to be making my West End debut, let alone how it feels to be making it with such a beautiful show. It’s beyond my wildest dreams.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST/LESS OF YOUR CHARACTER? HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE HIM/HER?
Anuerin Barnard: I’d describe him as a respectful, intellectual, strong, passionate young man. I like how committed he is, and how he uses words so carefully.
Charlotte Wakefield: I love my character! She is deep and charismatic, yet innocent and naive! To me she is everything an actor could want from a character. I was able, in rehearsal, to create my own Wendla. She is beautiful in every aspect but also has a hidden strength and drive behind her which you see when she is manipulating, unsuccessfully, her mother into telling her the facts of life. Like all of the characters, she has had no guidance through puberty and has so many questions to ask about growing up but her mother constantly tiptoes around the subject and misguides her. Throughout the show, Wendla discovers things about herself and the people around her that affect her for better and for worse.
There is nothing I dislike about Wendla. She is a challenge to portray because of the depth of her character and her story but she is helping me grow as an actor and everyday I discover something about her and her story so every performance has something new about it!
Iwan Rheon: Moritz is a very troubled teenager, struggling to get to grips with puberty and the many changes that are happening to his body.
Lucy Barker: Ilse is quite a difficult character to describe. She’s quite a tortured soul, what with the abuse she’s suffered at the hands of her father and how her escape from that isn’t very nice either. She’s wonderful in the sense that she isn’t afraid of being wrong, and is completely fearless.

Charlote Wakefield and Lucy Barker with part of the SPRING AWAKENING cast

IF YOU LIVED IN THE YEAR AND IN THE ENVIRONMENT THE SHOW IS SET, DID YOU ACT THE SAME WAY THAT YOUR CHARACTER ACTS? WHAT WOULD YOU DO IN HIS/HER SITUATION?
Anuerin Barnard: I think I’m very similar to Melchior, so probably the same.
Charlotte Wakefield: I think if I lived back then, I would have had the same experiences as the children in the show and would have only been given the same amount of information and there would have been just as misguided. I think Wendla’s story is probably the same, (if not, very similar), to the story of a young girl who did live in those times. Although Wedekind’s play may not, necessarily, have been based on a true story, he knew what it was like in those times and therefore knew that these issues were present.
If I did live in the 19th century and was in Wendla’s situation, I don’t think I would have been able to do anything differently. In terms of falling in love, I don’t think anyone, 14, or otherwise can avoid it if it happens to you and having sex with that person? Well in those times, the children obviously hadn’t been told first hand that sex will result in children and therefore had no idea of the consequences. The characters in the show are so misguided that none of them knew otherwise, except Melchior who got all of his extra knowledge on the subject of growing up out of books but books cannot describe feelings and like every human knows, feelings and emotions are much more powerful than knowledge and logic.
Lucy Barker: It’s difficult to say what I would do in Ilse’s situation, but saying that, what she goes through  is something that anyone of us would want to escape from, so I’d probably run away just like her.

WHICH IS YOUR FAVOURITE SCENE / SONG OF THE SHOW?
Anuerin Barnard: Scene: The scene between Ilse and Moritz. Song: “Dark I Know Well”.
Charlotte Wakefield: My favorite scene in the show is the one where Wendla finds out that she is going to have a child. I feel that this a real turning point in Wendla’s story. After realizing that sex had caused this but that, because of her mother she had no idea, she confronts her. This results in her being slapped by her mother. This is, again, another turning point because, earlier in the show we find out that one of Wendla’s best friends Martha is being beaten regularly by her father. Wendla had never been touched my her mother before this point so this is a big part of her story.
My favorite song in the show  is “Totally Fucked”. It’s the song that follows Melchior’s confrontation with the teachers. It’s a song where all of the characters ‘rock out’ and let go. It’s full of energy as a song and it’s such a thrill to perform! The audience love it and it finishes on a bang with huge cheers! It gives you, as a performer a huge rush of energy and adrenalin!
Iwan Rheon: My favourite song is “The Dark I Know Well” and favourite scene is the part in Act 2 with Ilse and Moritz. It is also the most difficult.
Lucy Barker: My favourite song of the show has to be either ‘Mama who bore me reprise’ which is the most amazing song to perform, or ‘Touch Me’ because it’s one of the two songs that we’re all in, and its melody and lyrics are some of my favourite not just in the musical but of all time!

AND YOUR MOST DIFFICULT SCENE?
Anuerin Barnard: Probably the hayloft scene.
Charlotte Wakefield: The hardest scene for me to perform is the beating scene in the middle of act one. This is where Wendla tells Melchior about Martha being beaten. She then asks him to beat her. Unlike Aneurin, I didn’t go to drama school and therefore haven’t been trained in stage combat so whilst rehearsing this scene I did have to learn how to stage fight. It´s difficult, on a personal level to perform as well because of the issue it deals with.
Lucy Barker: Ilse’s main scene (Don’t Do Sadness / Blue Wind) is just beautiful, but also very difficult for me emotionally. Imagine having to live through the life of a young girl who’s not only suffered abuse from her father but at the hands of the people she fled to in order to escape from that. It’s very emotionally draining every night!

Iwan Rheon and Anuerin Barnardmwith Sian Thomas in a SPRING AWAKENING scene

DO YOU HAVE ANY SUPERSTITION BEFORE BEGINNING THE SHOW?
Anuerin Barnard: No.
Charlotte Wakefield: I get nervous before I go onstage before every single performance. I think this a good thing and something that every performer feels because its anticipation of what is to come. Being nervous shows that you care about what you are about to do. I have always said that the minute I stop getting nervous is the time that I need to move on. I  strongly doubt, however, that that time will ever come because I care about Spring Awakening more than anything!
Lucy Barker: Charlotte (Wendla) and I share a dressing room, and we always brush our teeth and sometimes have a little sing of Mama Reprise before we go on! We have so much fun in our dressing room!

IS THERE ANY ACTOR/ACTRESS YOU ADMIRE? OR SOMEONE YOU WOULD LIKE TO WORK WITH?
Anuerin Barnard: There’s many people I’d like to work with, such as: Ben Wishaw, James Macavoy, Alan Rickman, Kate Blanchett,. I really admire the work that Richard Burton did, and also Marlon Brando.
Charlotte Wakefield: It would be an honor to meet actors like Dame Judy Dench and Meryl Streep. In my eyes they are an inspiration! They are not only brilliant actresses but they bring something completely individual to every single character they play, be that on the stage or on screen! To work with them would be a dream for me for as I have always looked up to them!
Iwan Rheon: I’m a huge fan of Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole and Richard Harris, and would love to work with someone like Anthony Hopkins or Michael Sheen.
Lucy Barker: There are so many actresses and actors who I look up to, as they’re all who inspired me to be where I am today. David Tennant, Kristin Chenoweth, Hannah Jane Fox... to name but a few!