Nuran David Calis

Melchior, Moritz, Wendla and the others are between fourteen and sixteen years old. Their daily lives are dictated by school and their parents setting the rhythm. But the true life for the clique starts on Friday evenings, their meeting point is the well and the freedom always only lasts for a weekend. Melchior is the best pupil in his class, his parents trust him and leave him alone – which is why he has the freedom to explore the secrets of love. Moritz, on the other hand, is permanently under pressure. He studies to the point of exhaustion in order to avoid risking being kept down a year and disappointing his strict father. Everything scares him, girls confuse him and the future seems more than uncertain to him. He confides in Melchior, who doesn’t have the necessary compassion for his friend’s distress. For Melchior meets up with Wendla in secret and sleeps with her. After that, nothing is as it was: Wendla gets pregnant and is as overwhelmed with it as Melchior. Moritz is kept down a year. Desperate and abandoned by everyone, he commits suicide. Melchior runs away – from Wendla, responsibility and the grieving for his friend. With his wish to leave everything behind, Melchior takes the first step into his own life.

Exactly 100 years after the first performance of Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening, author, theatre and movie director Nuran David Calis has written his own version of the so-called “children’s tragedy” and staged it at the schauspielhannover. Calis stays close to Wedekind’s characters and their stories, but is guided by the realities of the lives of contemporary teenagers – their ideals and worries, longings and wishes, their language and music. (Announcement schauspielhannover)