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Amadeus
Playwright - Peter Shaffer
Director - Richard Baron
Set & Costume Designer - Ken Harrison
Lighting Designer - Mark Pritchard
Company - Pitlochry Festival Theatre Company 2002
Venue - Pitlochry Festival Theatre
www.pitlochry.org.uk
01796 484626
By the banks of the River Tummel, their theatre has most beautiful setting.
Pitlochry is about 2hrs easy drive from Edinburgh + has lots of hotels
and B+Bs. When theatre is open Restaurant booking advised 01796 484626
for dinner also Bar and Coffee Bar.
EdinburghGuide Pitlochry
Festival Theatre Page with last season's reviews and info
Dates - see end of review
Run Time - 2hr 50mins including 20 minute interval
Reviewer - Thelma Good
Directed with a sure, confident bravado
Amadeus - Pitlochry Festival Theatre Production
Salieri Michael MacKenzie and Motzart Matt Blair
© Keith Brame 2002
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The first production of the Pitlochry Festival 2002 is richly costumed,
stylishly set by Ken Harrison and directed with a sure, confident bravado
by Richard Baron.
Peter Shaffer's play had a star studded cast when it premiered at the
National Theatre in 1979 with Paul Scofield as Salieri, Simon Callow as
Mozart, and Felicity Kendal as Constanze Weber, Mozart's wife. Richard
Baron has put together a very fine cast of his own with Michael MacKenzie
giving a masterful performance as Salieri the composer both young and
old. He believed himself cursed by God to recognise genius in Mozart and
how paltry his own compositions were in comparison. Salieri, as he waits
for his death, goes back over his long and successful life to when Mozart
entered it. At that point Salieri realised that the "gibbering Monkey"
as Mozart was described at the time was uniquely gifted, destined to be
remembered for much more than being a child prodigy. As the play advances
Salieri rails against God and includes us as complicit conspirators in
his plans.
Matt Blair is a delight as Mozart flinging himself around like
a bumptious boy in the Courtly rooms, playing variations on Salieri's
tune he has only just heard and frolicking with Constanze, Helen Logan.
Their joy in one another is clear, as they share a childish mischief in
things including bodily noises and more. The Emperor of Austria Joseph
II has Jimmy Chisholm giving us a monarch who plays artfully with
his courtiers, keeping them on their toes. Well contrastingly played are
the Courtiers, von Strack, John Buick, Count Orsini-Rosenberg,
Moray Treadwell and Baron van Swieten, Dougal Lee. They get
drawn into Salieri's developing schemes to keep Mozart out of a real position
where he could develop and be financially secure. Like Arts Boards of
the present day their own personal foibles and committee dynamics prevent
them from recognising the genius in their midst.
With the Venticelli, Guy Fearon and Gavin Kean, masked and
voicing the gossip and rumours of the time and a very tight first half
the script soars and resonates like the musical score it echoes. Played
with an interval the playwright didn't originally intend the second half
hasn't quite got the same impact, losing the edge at times, but this is
clearly a production which will grow and fuse. What Peter Shaffer has
composed in his play is not only a fictionalised interpretation of the
relationship of the two composers. He brings out the uncomfortable truths
that geniuses aren't beautiful, virtuous people even though their creations
are and that we ordinary mortals, even arts administrators, find it hard
to give them what they need. A fine opening to the new season.
© Thelma Good 10 May 2002
AMADEUS
2002 Performance Dates
10th May (8pm), 11th May (2pm), 11th May (8pm), 17th May (8pm),
18th May (2pm), 25th May (2pm),
1st June (8pm), 6th June (8pm), 12th June (8pm), 15th June (2pm),
20th June (8pm), 24th June (8pm), 29th June (8pm),
4th July (8pm), 12th July (8pm), 18th July (8pm), 24th July (8pm),
27th July (8pm), 31st July (2pm),
5th August (8pm), 10th August (2pm), 14th August (8pm), 23rd August
(8pm), 27th August (8pm), 28th August (2pm),
7th September (8pm), 12th September (8pm), 20th September (8pm),
24th September (8pm), 25th September (2pm),30th September (8pm),
5th October (8pm), 9th October (8pm), 12th October (2pm), 17th
October (8pm).
End of Amadeus performances
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