AMADEUS till 25 September

Derby
AMADEUS: Peter Shaffer
Derby Playhouse: 01332 363275
Runs: 2h 40m, one interval 28 August 25 September 2004
Review: Rod Dungate, 8 September 2004

Dynamism and sensitivity in a fresh-faced production
Peter Shaffer's much performed entertainment has a fresh feel in Stephen Edwards's sharp and, at times, engagingly quirky production. There's nothing tired about this revival and much praise for this must also go to Julian Forsyth for his fleshed-out Salieri and to Paul Ewing for his vulnerable Mozart.

Watching the play it's possible to agree in part with Salieri self-declared mediocre composer; to believe that Mozart's music was the voice of God. However, since I don't believe in God, I could be brought round to the view that the whole of Mozart's life led up to his final work the Requiem Mass. It's certainly heavenly.

Shaffer's play is a kind of glorious melodrama, with Salieri as a good old fashioned villain you almost expect him to laugh and exit SL. But Shaffer's material transcends the form. First of all there is the music itself; Mozart's music-bytes float in and out to tremendous effect. Nowhere more so than their first appearance Salieri's first meeting with it Serenade in E Flat. There's also Shaffer's dramatic skill, both with his characters and his construction. With great skill he brings out the dramatic tensions in opposites formality and freedom, the ever-present search for beauty, the scatological and the sublime.

Forsyth's Salieri is a seething cauldron of these opposites, with the lid firmly screwed down do cauldrons have lids though . . . ?? He's destroyed by his love for Mozart's music and his hatred, not of Mozart, but of Mozart's clearly superior composing genius. Forsyth leads us easefully through this maze. His emotions may be contrary to each other but he gives them full value and they add up to a performance that gives us great pleasure.

Paul Ewing's Mozart is a delight. I love the journey Ewing gives his character. He's a perfect balance for Forsyth's Salieri simple, ingenuous perhaps, even his bragging has an innocent charm (plus we have the knowledge to know he's right, which helps.) But as Mozart' moves towards his death so Ewing gives him greater depth, he's like a well opening up. But his innocence is never sacrificed.

Mozart's wife, Constanze Weber, in Katherine Manners's performance, is lively and genuine. Ewing and Manners create a bond between them that is as beautiful as it is delicate and this is just as true when he's threatening to lick her arse as it is when he's dying in her arms.

Edwards directs with great sensitivity to the changing moods of the play.

Baron van Swieten: Robin Bowerman
Count von Strack: Graeme Eton
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Paul Ewing
Venticello 1: Maxine Fone
Antonio Salieri: Julian Forsyth
Emperor Joseph II: Christopher James
Count Orsini-Rosenberg: Michael Kirk
Constanze Weber: Katherine Manners
Christ: Jay Reynolds
Venticello 2: Philippa Waller
Salieri's Cook: Pat Ashcroft
Katerina: Lucy Dawson/ Sali Gresham
Selieri's Valet: Terry Stevenson
Kapellmeister Bonno: David Thompson

Directed by: Stephen Edwards
Designed by: Rosie Alabaster
Lighting Designed by: Charles Balfour
Music Composition by: Jon Nicholls
Sound Designed by: Paul Delaney
Video Designed by: Kit Lane
Flying Effects by: Freedom Flying

2004-09-09 10:16:29