The Jigsaw

Jigsaw is a play about a youth theatre group which has decided to put on a play at the Edinburgh Festival. The play chosen by the group is Spring Awakening, based on the play written in 1891 by Frank Wedekind. We are taken through the allocation of parts, with all the anxiety that promotes, the exploration of the story and rehearsals of the play until it is ready, just in time, for Edinburgh. We also see something of the backgrounds of the group members – their hopes, fears and disappointments.The main aim of the production is to show the power of drama and theatre in shaping the lives of young people, building confidence, positive self-esteem and camaraderie. Involvement in drama has something to offer to everyone. The second aim is to parallel the lives of the characters from Spring Awakening and to show that the feelings of adolescence are similar in young people today to those feelings in Wedekind’s time.In general, the play works well and the group’s development of the play looks authentic. A number of the characters have dual roles, as youth group members and as characters within Spring Awakening and they handle this competently. The play is well-intentioned, which gives it a problem in trying to be fair to everyone. Among the characters are those with Asperger’s Syndrome, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, teen pregnancy or uncertain sexuality and others whose parents are bankrupt or sick. All extremely worthy but difficult to fit into a fifty minute play except at the shallowest level.