Everyman does not shy away from work that requires exceptionally strong character actor and this is certainly the case with the Peter Schaffer play Amadeus.
Productions of the play always suffer from the fact that the film version is so well known, and frankly brilliant, and comparisons are pointless. The only real similarities are that the two leading male roles require superlative acting.
In this production the small theatre at Chapter allows for an intimate setting and the Salieri character can talk directly to his audience, much of the play is him talking to us. It is really the most important part of the play and the scenes that sort of tell us the story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are more like illustrations along the way of the monologue.
That is not to say that those scenes are not entertaining and well performed particularly by the Mozart and his wife Constanza, from Ashleigh Carter and Llinos McCann. The other characters from the imperial court, the emperor, the cliche of musician place holders are nicely drawn but do not add too much to the overall performance as they are written as one dimensional and perfunctory.
As stated, it is the strength of the performance of Salieri and Mozart that the production is dependent on and it worked. Ashleigh Carter’s Mozart was not just a precocious silly boy although we did have that daft laugh, and Brian Smith as Salieri largely captured the angry with his fate madness of the character.
The staging was effective with the constraint of the small theatre space. A quite large cast of people in smaller non named roles, and principal rile players also doubling for audience members etc. provided the necessary bodies for the scenes, such as the dance with no music in the opera rehearsal and the performance of Magic Flute.