The Awakening of Spring

Frank Wedekind's 1891 play Spring Awakening, a frank look at adolescence and repression, comes to the screen in this filmed stage production directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman. In a provincial town governed by silence and shame, three young people begin to discover their sexuality, among them Michael, who knows a little more than his friends about the mysteries of desire. The adults around them offer punishment instead of answers, and a society devoted to propriety exacts a tragic price for their curiosity. Jesse Lee Soffer plays Michael, with John Aniston as Mr. Gable and Victoria Tennant as Mrs. Woodman; Nicholas Downs, Briana Feehan, Yuval David and Gary Bisig also appear. Faithful to the spirit of the original, The Awakening of Spring explores the tensions and confusion of growing up in a world that refuses to talk honestly about it.