Amadeus

Andrea Passwater

Becky Diehl

 

Andrea Passwater
Friday night, Amadeus opened to a packed house. I had never seen a Theatre Tuscaloosa performance before, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I arrived. I walked inside the theater, and was greeted by very nice surroundings. There were comfortable fold-down chairs, and a huge stage with various levels and a couple of side platforms.

Not bad at all for community theatre.

The costumes throughout the entire play were magnificent. A lot of detail went into them, and I’m pretty sure they were made especially for the show. The set-up of the stage was also very good. There weren’t a lot of props—a table now and then, some chairs, and a piano—but it really fit the story.

The play starts with two gossips explaining how a Mr. Solieri is going mad. A few minutes later, the audience meets this person, and finds that he is an old man in a wheelchair. After his servants leave, he calls to the audience to hear his story in the “last hour of his life.” The audience is taken back in time as Solieri changes out of his house coat and becomes a young and vibrant composer in 19 th century Vienna.

Because nearly the whole play takes place in someone’s memory, the director didn’t have many time and space constraints to work with. For example, the action in the play is constantly stopped so that Solieri may narrate what is happening. All of the actors in the background freeze for the monologue, which I thought was a really cool effect. Also, all of the props on stage are set up right in front of the audience by characters. It’s as if Mr. Solieri’s thoughts and memories are literally dissolving into each other.

As the play continues, a conflict develops between Solieri and a young newcomer to Vienna named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Solieri soon realizes that Mozart is a much better composer than he can ever be, so he uses his influence to destroy Mozart’s life in any way he can. I think this is where the action of the play started to slow down a little bit. Solieri’s long monologues were unnecessary, because the action on stage was obvious. I thought they really interrupted the flow of the play, and eventually even became annoying. A few lines here and there would have been sufficient.

I really think that this small fault is what did the whole play in for me. It should have been magnificent. The stage, the costumes, the acting—everything seemed absolutely perfect, but I couldn’t help thinking that I really didn’t like the play at all. It just drug on forever. The entire play ran at around three hours!

Of course, some people may love it. If you have the time and patience to sit through long explanations, then this would be a good play for you. For me, though, Amadeus gets a B-. Still, seeing the quality and hard work that obviously went into this play saved me from completely turning on Theatre Tuscaloosa. Everything about it was great except for the script, and I wasn’t entirely disappointed. I think Amadeus was a one-time fluke, and you can bet I’ll be at their next production.
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Becky Diehl
Amadeus by Peter Shaffer is a play about the lives of composers Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Salieri tells the story to the audience as he recalls his past including his jealousy of Mozart and the harm he causes to come to him. The story shows Mozart at the height of his career and his downfall in popularity in Vienna. The play is drawn out to be three hours long, when it could have been much shorter.

The set and the costumes were both amazing and very good to the period of the play. However the sound clips used during the play didn’t always match the actions of the characters. When Salieri (played by Jeff Wilson) or Amadeus (played by Taylor Bridges) went to the piano and pretended to play they weren’t quite always with the sound clips that were being played. Even when Bridges was just pretending to conduct a symphony sometimes there lacked a connection to the music that was actually being played.

Even though there were issues with coordinating sound and action, the acting was still quite good. Bridges did a good job of playing an irritating character, while making you feel for him. He did a good job of playing an immature composer who had a lot of growing up to do, but never meant any real harm. On the other hand Wilson did a good job of making it hard to like his character at all. He was a greedy and unhappy character who couldn’t focus on anything but destroying Mozart because he was competition. Wilson made this clear and created a character that just isn’t likable.

The two actors who played the Venticelli characters (Adam Miller and Alex Perkins) were the highlight of the show. They brought humor to even the most dull or dark situations. Miller and Perkins also did a good job of bringing the beginning and the end of the play together and making sure everything was connected. While playing this crucial role they kept the play from getting two dark. Amadeus was a good play with great costumes, good sets, and decent acting but it was just too long to be enjoyed properly.
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