My daughter had to write an essay for her string music class, and she chose to write it about the fabulous film Amadeus which tells the story of Salieri and Mozart. So, being the good mother that I am, I thought it would be a good idea if she saw the play as well. We were lucky enough to catch the closing-night performance of the Stage Centre Productions' presentation of AMADEUS at the Fairview Library Theatre.

The play AMADEUS was written by Peter Shaffer in 1979 and was inspired by the short play Mozart and Salieri, written by Aleksandr Pushkin. In 1980, it premiered on Broadway, featuring Ian McKellan and Tim Curry in the lead roles. It was revived again in 2000, and both productions were nominated for several Tony awards. In 1984, the film version starring F. Murray Abraham as Salieri and Tom Hulce as Mozart won 8 Oscars. Christine Ebersole was also in the film, and she is now starring on Broadway in GREY GARDENS, and Tom Hulce is one of the many producers of SPRING AWAKENING. I also remember seeing a production of the play in Toronto at the Hummingbird (O'Keefe) Centre when it first toured.

The Stage Centre Productions production of AMADEUS was designed and directed by L.Garth Allen, music directed by James Pinhorn and starred Roger Kell as the Antonio Salieri and Brad Emes at Mozart.

From the program:

This provocative play revolves around a confrontation between mediocrity and genius. Antonio Salieri is the established court composer in the court of Austrian Emperor Joseph II. Enter younge Mozart, perhaps the greatest musical genius of all time. The greatest tragedy lies in Salieri's realization that there is no connection between virtue and talent.

Actually, although his laugh was slightly irritating in both the film and the play, Mozart didn't seem to be all that bad a guy to me. Everyone else in the court seemed so fake and pretentious, and I'm sure they behaved just as badly (or worse) in private!

The girls and I really enjoyed the play. It was well acted with great production values (the costumes were awesome!) and it was nice to see the (approximately) 230 seats sold out. At $25 a ticket ($15 for students) community theatre is so wonderfully accessible. And it is always great to be reminded that yes, people really do like to go and see live theatre. And it made me want to go and play and listen to some Mozart!

So, what is a Nipple of Venus actually made of?

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