Amadeus,
by Peter Shaffer.

Tight Productions.
The Old Fire Station, 16th October 2001.

Shaffer's play is a tragic tale, the dark subject of which could just as well be transposed to a different time, with different figures to play out the story.
The humour is also dark, and dynamic: the story is narrated by Salieri, who in the hour before his own death, recounts his story to the ghosts of the future, or rather us, the audience. We watch from Salieri's point of view, as the benefactor, admirer and enemy in disguise of Mozart, of who's talent he is quietly but ardently jealous…

Salieri is played by Prasanna Puwanarajah. He was really good. The character of Salieri came straight through, and as the storyteller, his voice guided us in and out of real time and memories, suspending our mind's eye with the intonation and measure of his words.

Mozart is portrayed as a precocious and 'horrible creature' by Shaffer, and delectably well by Rob Riddell, whose dribbly facial expressions leave Rik Mayal and Rowan Atkinson with minimal repertoires in comparison. Rebecca Leek, who played Constanze, was very natural and believable. The quality of the acting and the interaction between the actors buzzed along nicely, all the characters were well formed right down to the most unwieldy of non-speaking parts. The characters' emotions were sincerely rendered, the comedy was free flowing, and the audience responded similarly.

Dora Wade's set was unreal enough (it is realistic as opposed to abstract) through the placing of the furniture and the simplicity of its representation, to bring the play alive in that period, without stifling the imagination as can happen when a set is too literal. The music happened in all the appropriate places, and we were also treated to fervent excerpts from the Mass in C Minor and the Requiem.

Pip Johnson.