Spring Awakening: Triggering?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.)

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

"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.

@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.

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.