I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard an ovation as celebratory and raucous in Steppenwolf’s upstairs ensemble theater as the one at the curtain call of Sunday’s opening of Amadeus. The show, directed with aplomb by Robert Falls, is just that delicious.
Nearly everyone onstage seems genuinely to be having fun, from Sawyer Smith’s saucy, gossipy attendant to Gregory Linington’s insouciant Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II to David Darrow’s free-spirited boy genius Mozart to Ian Barford’s wickedly funny Antonio Salieri, the rival composer who made it his life’s work to tear Amadeus down while acting supportive to his face.
More than 200 years before the term “frenemy” was coined, Salieri and Mozart embodied it. From the moment Mozart the prodigy arrived in Vienna and upset Salieri’s creative applecart, Peter Shaffer’s play posits, Salieri not only worked to undermine him but also was the only person in the royal court’s circle who truly understood Mozart’s genius. It is this inner tension, which tore Salieri apart even as he was destroying his younger rival, that imbues the farcical aspects of the story with a sense of profound tragedy.
There are several strong performances among the 18-person cast. Darrow is a madcap delight, for instance, and Yasen Peyankov gets several big laughs as Baron Gottfried van Swieten, but this production belongs to Barford. In fact, this may go down as the most masterful performance of his career.
At every turn, Barford brings Salieri’s inner turmoil to vivid life, giving us a complex portrait of a man of mediocre talents driven to protect his position at any cost by the certainty that God himself has anointed him to be the most successful composer in the world.
The in-the-round staging suits the play surprisingly well, and Falls’ direction is at turns playful and at others emphasizes the deeper psychological currents at play, as when Salieri walks through his quarters and delivers a monologue as his face moves in and out of shadow.
This Amadeus is smart, funny and assured from beginning to end. Thanks in large part to Barford’s dynamic, empathetic performance, it is a triumph.
Amadeus runs through January 25 at Steppenwolf Theatre.
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Michael Brosilow
