First things first, what’s this play about?
Amadeus is effectively the story of Mozart’s life. A highly fictionalised account of his life. I say fictionalised, as over the past couple of weeks when I’ve been chatting to other music students about it, you get a lot of:
“oooooo, Amadeus.”
People, especially those who know a lot about music, can be quite snobby about it because of historical inaccuracies. For example, I recently asked someone to help Chris, who is playing Mozart himself, learn how to conduct. They then responded:
“But you know Mozart probably never conducted?”
The story is told via an account given by Antonio Salieri of his encounters with Mozart and how he plots to murder him. Salieri was a composer and one of Mozart’s contemporaries, and there are historical rumours surrounding his alleged plot to kill Mozart.
Why does Salieri want to kill Mozart?
He does it out of envy, as he was never as successful as Mozart, nor did he possess Mozart’s incredible gift for composing classical music. It is primarily a play about jealousy, so I thought it was very interesting to do in an Oxford setting, as it’s just an extreme version of what we see in tutorials.
Why is the play called Amadeus as opposed to Wolfgang, or even, Mozart?
It is called Amadeus, as it means lover of God in Latin. In the play, Salieri is presented as a very pious and good man, although that is debatable, he gives to charity and is celibate. However, despite all of these supposed virtues, he can’t compose. Well, in comparison to the child prodigy, Mozart. Salieri sees Mozart as a vile and vulgar man, ruled by base desires and physical pleasures, yet he has this genius musical skill. He sees this skill as God speaking through him. This causes Salieri to turn against God and try to kill Mozart.
What attracted you to this play as an aspiring director?
In first year a tutor described Amadeus, in particular the film version, as an initiation into the world of classical music, despite the historical inaccuracies.
At the time I wanted to get involved in drama either acting or directing and was trying to think of something to do, so two years ago I was going to direct this play but it turned out the rights weren’t available at the time. So it’s gone from being what would have been the first, to what is going to be my final production in Oxford.
Do you agree that this play is a good initiation into the world of music?
It is about music and the experiences it’s possible to have so the historical inaccuracies don’t matter very much. For example, we see the way Salieri responds to music; it’s such an emotional response. He is able to talk about the feelings of heavenliness and the deep longing that music stirs in him.
Have you adapted the original play or added any personal touches of your own?
Well since me and the producer are both music students, we felt that some of the pieces used in play were rather obvious examples, and we have changed quite a lot. In some cases we thought: ‘we don’t want to use this piece, we’d rather use this piece’ and in this way we can pick on we really like and one that’s far more emotional than the original.
Is the actor playing Mozart also a genius musician, if not, did he have to learn the piano?
As it happened, we managed to get round this issue actually quite well. The actor who plays Salieri, Stan, is a music student and a very talented pianist. Chris, the actor playing Mozart, learnt basic conducting and a basic sequence of the notes of the piano for a scene where he hears a certain piece of music then instantly plays it back. However, in one scene, where Salieri and Mozart first meet, one of my favourite scenes in fact, Salieri plays a march and when Mozart hears it, he is very obnoxious about it and wants to change things. Rather than sit at the piano and play how he thinks it should go, he grabs the manuscripts and re-writes it, which is something we know Mozart actually did. He then puts the score in front of Stan, so it’s actually Stan who plays it. This actually works very well, as Salieri finds himself playing a piece of music that he believes to have been influenced by God, who is speaking through Mozart.
How did you find working in the BT studio?
Since the play was originally performed on the enormous Olivier stage at the National Theatre, our production has to be done very differently due to the very small venue. If anyone has seen the film or play, then they’ll be expecting a big spectacle, but our performance is far more intimate. Stan, the actor playing Salieri was also in a play called Not About Heroes, about the war poets Owen and Sasson, which I also directed, and he is very good at narrating a story and communicating with the audience. Something that is very good about our version is that the audience will get very involved in the action, in the BT studio, it will get to the point where Stan can recognise the face of every audience member. We want to bring out the extreme darkness that Salieri’s character reaches in the play, which gets to the point of discomfort.
Finally, give me the best reason why people should come and see this play?
People should come to see our fantastic cast perform. They’re all brilliant and have been such a fun group to work with, despite being difficult to control at times during rehearsals, as they’re so giggly and playful. They often end up doing improv and they’re all hilarious people. But this energy comes out on stage and it’s a small cast doing everything, so you should come and see it for them.
Amadeus is on at the BT studio Tuesday 9th – Saturday 13th February.
