What happens to children when they can’t see a path to growing up?

Sewer Rats’ production of Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind, directed by Sarah Billings, interprets Wedekind’s underproduced tragic gem by turning a new eye on its classic themes, bringing this turn-of-the-century script into the present moment with an emphasis on the agency and personality of its well-wrought young characters. Embracing the play’s surprising sense of humor and darkly vivid fantasies, Sewer Rats brings out both poetry and humanity in Wedekind’s landmark play.

Spring Awakening is the original source material for the musical of the same name. It is also a stirring, resonant, and ever-relevant dramatic script with more than a few unexpected delights for those who haven’t had the pleasure of seeing the original play.

Failed by an education that refuses to prepare them for their adult lives, Wedekind’s characters make their way with little guidance as they push for independence, reach out for love and friendship, and seek out self-knowledge on the thorny path to adulthood. Troubled by issues of class, sex, discipline, morality, and sexuality, each young character is caught in a struggle to define themselves against a system that tells them they have no future if they fail their Latin exam.

Wedekind’s frank but poetic treatment of controversial subjects including suicide, sex, and abortion has often caused this play to be banned or censored. However, although originally subtitled “A Children’s Tragedy,” Spring Awakening is ultimately life-affirming, full of stolen moments of beauty shining out from a confusion of pleasure and pain.