Amadeus
★★★★☆ Intimate
Pianodrome: Thurs 10 – Sun 13 April 2025
Review by Thom Dibdin
Edinburgh-based Strawmoddie theatre company bring Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus to the Pianodrome in a powerful examination of the jealousy of mediocrity in the face of genius.
Played out in the Pianodrome’s tiny, 75-seat circular wooden amphitheatre, there is a real intimacy to director Matthew Jeffery’s production. With only a grand piano for set, this is the perfect venue for court musician Salieri to rage against the arrival of the genius Mozart in Vienna in 1781.
Ben Blow as Salileri in Amadeus. Pic: Robin Mair Photography
Significantly different in its structure from the movie, the stage play of Amadeus finds Antonio Salieri in what he believes to be his final hours, conjuring the spirits of the future so that he may confess responsibility for Mozart’s death in 1791.
The audience, seated as they are, hard against the edge of the playing area, make the Pianodrome perfect for this conceit. Here we are in 2025, judging Salieri for his actions over that decade, as he recalls them 30 years on in his dotage in 1823.
natural power
Ben Blow is magnificent as Salieri. Blow has a natural power on stage, filling the tiny playing area by force of his presence alone, even as the weakened 72-year-old.
When he throws off his old-man’s garb to reveal the courtier and professional musician of his youth, operating in the court of Emperor Joseph II to consolidate and maintain his position, he becomes a more feral beast.
Ben Blow as Salileri and Caitlin Carter (Mozart) in Amadeus. Pic: Robin Mair Photography
Blow uses his power to superb effect as his anger and fear builds over the course of the first act. It seems that no matter how powerful his voice becomes, he still has a few notches left to turn it up.
Caitlin Carter is his antithesis as the simpering dandy of precocious talent that is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Bright and lively with a squall of nervous laughter that punctuates everything he says, everything about him says: “look at me!”
prosaic and deliberate
Blow’s Salieri, like his music, is prosaic and deliberate. Not quite plodding, but going that way. Perhaps to a fault: Jeffery could have brought a bit of brio to Blow’s storytelling in the early scenes.
Carter also echoes Mozart’s music in their creation of the young man from Salzburg who believes his own hype. Not only is he a genius but anything anyone can do, he can better. And only he knows the true way into the music.
Ben Blow as Salileri in Amadeus. Pic: Robin Mair Photography
Salieri’s tragedy, and the source of his rage, is his recognition that Mozart’s hype is justified. While all around, in the court and the masonic lodge, his rival faces disapproval and misunderstanding, Salieri knows that Mozart will live forever in his music, while his own will die with him.
Blow brings a complexity to this journeyman, digging deep into the jealousy that besets us as we face up to the realisation that we are not as good as we thought we were.
brilliant counterpoint
Jeffery makes great use of the space to ensure that the court and salons of Vienna are given their due. The playing area pushes into the audience, while the central piano is a stage of itself.
Amèlie Berry is a source of tension and brilliant counterpoint to Carter’s Mozart as Constanze Weber, Mozart’s effervescent fiance and then wife. In this masculine world, her interaction with Salieri as he offers her sweetmeats is a brilliantly played horror show of lasciviousness.
Amèlie Berry (Constanze Weber) and Ben Blow as Salileri in Amadeus. Pic: Robin Mair Photography
Amber Lipman brings a surprising vocal virtuosity to the only other female character, Salieri’s brilliant pupil Katherina Cavalieri, who Mozart uses to demonstrate his latest vocal works.
Salieri would be nothing without the court and Jeffery ensures that the court scenes drive the plot. And, thanks to strong characterisation of the minor roles, he brings little flirting complexities into them.
sardonic glances
Jonathan Whiteside is not quite, but verging on, the buffoon who must obeyed, as Emperor Joseph. Hilary Davies adds sardonic glances as courtier Count Johan von Strack, while Nicholas Thorne brings the barbs as fellow courtier Count Orsini-Rosenberg, and Chris Allan adds a sense of justice as the mason and patron of the arts Baron Gottfried van Swieten.
Sinclair Davis and Alan Sunter have perfect timing as the pair of Venticello, “little winds”, who are a chorus of tittle tattle from the street to Salieri, and provide extra bodies on stage as needed.
Amber Lipman (Katherina Cavalieri) and the company in Amadeus. Pic: Robin Mair Photography
If Alice Pelan’s design is simple – the set is dressed with little more than an ink well and a plate of sweetmeats – the costumes are things of great finery. Aimee Whyte, Kate Duffield, Jon Best, Chris Allan and Hilary Davies all had a hand, and the results are properly sumptuous.
In a play about Mozart, great sound design is vital. From the early ticking of the clock in Salieri’s room to the overflowing of Mozart’s music which dominates Act 2, Dug Campbell keeps everything clear.
A cushion is necessary
The Pianodrome might be the perfect space in which to perform Amadeus, but it is not without its practical problems. A cushion is necessary. Having two is advised. And even in this warm weather, a blanket will not go amiss.
Nicholas Thorne, Jonathan Whiteside, Caitlin Carter, Hilary Davies and Ben Blow in Amadeus. Pic: Robin Mair Photography
It is well established that Shaffer’s account of Mozart, Salieri and their relationship is not historically accurate. Even so, Blow and Carter’s performances make it as tempting as the Viennese sweetmeats to which Salieri is partial, to see their Salieri and Mozart as the truth.
However, the use of the two composers to represent differing elements of human’s relationship with music and with God, is certainly credible. Matthew Jeffery ensures that underneath the brio, the play’s internal truths, its complexity and naked humanity, are allowed to breath.
Running time: Two hours and 40 minutes (including one interval).
Pianodrome, 28 West Harbour Road, EH5 1PN
Thurs 10 – Sun 13 April 2025
Evenings: 7.30pm.
Tickets sold out, but further details here.
Pianodrome on Facebook : @ThePianodrome
Strawmoddie on Facebook: @strawmoddie
The cast of Amadeus from Strawmoddie. Pic: Robin Mair Photography
ENDS
