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Amadeus

A flamboyant take on Peter Shaffer’s classic
Red Line Productions
by
ABR Arts 30 December 2022

Amadeus

A flamboyant take on Peter Shaffer’s classic
Red Line Productions
by
ABR Arts 30 December 2022
Michael Sheen as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus (photograph by Sydney Opera House)
Michael Sheen as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus (photograph by Sydney Opera House)

Amadeus is English playwright Peter Shaffer’s most resilient work. Antonio Salieri’s battle with both his god and his rival Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has been frequently performed and revived, with actors of the calibre of Paul Scofield, Ian McKellen, and David Suchet as Salieri, and Simon Callow, Tim Curry, and Michael Sheen as Mozart. It says a lot for the play’s durability that so much of its power and pertinence can survive a production as basically misguided as the one at present in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House.

Shaffer’s exploration of the impotent frustration and rage the dedicated, hard-working composer feels towards the giggling, infantile oaf who effortlessly produces music infinitely greater than anything he can manage is the resentful respect that talent pays to genius. It has even been suggested, somewhat implausibly, that the play is Shaffer’s dramatisation of his feelings towards Samuel Beckett. In fact, it is a further exploration of a theme that recurs in Shaffer’s plays of this period: that of the older man obsessed by a younger who has a vitality he can never achieve. Pizarro and the exotic Atahuallpa in Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964), Martin Dysart and Alan Strang in Equus (1973), and of course Salieri and Mozart in Amadeus (1979).

From the New Issue

Comment (1)

  • I have seen this particular production and cannot believe my eyes as I read this review. Did you see the same play I did? First of all, I don't understand your argument about the play being over-produced. Too loud? Too fast? I experienced none of those things. If anything, the production was incredible. The music, the costumes, the acting, the final scene, all were superbly bombastic to match the potent tone of the play. I practically leapt to my feet at the end. It was utterly, utterly joyous. It made me fall in love with theatre and music all over again, and everyone that I have spoken to who has seen the play has said wonders about it. Perhaps consider developing an open mind the next time you decide to go and see a new and refreshing take on an extraordinary play.
    Posted by Serena Johnson
    31 December 2022

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