by Gabriella de Brequet (she/they)

Tyler Gastelum as Antonio Salieri photo credit to Alex J. Alegria

“Amadeus is backed by a strong ensemble of performers as well as supported by a seasoned group of artistic and technical experts.”

Peter Shaffer’s Tony Award-winning play Amadeus, presented by Winding Road Theater Ensemble and directed by Maria Caprile, centers around composers Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart during their residencies in Vienna, Austria from 1781 up until 1823. This fictionalized story, re-told from Salieri’s perspective, is a classic and well-loved dramedy also made popular by a 1984 film adaptation that has become a cult classic.

I have to admit I haven’t seen a production of Amadeus or the film. Since I hadn’t seen the film and wasn’t familiar with the play, I felt that I could be subjective and non-biased throughout. However, at times I felt that if I had been more familiar with the play or film adaptation I may have enjoyed the production even more. Amadeus is backed by a strong ensemble of performers as well as supported by a seasoned group of artistic and technical experts, dramaturgs, and an intimacy coordinator. These roles are great elements that make for wonderful theatre. Amadeus is performed in the intimate Cabaret theatre at the Temple of Music and Art. A theatre space I’m incredibly fond of viewing theatre in, despite some of its foundational limitations. That all said, this production was not without flaws, however, as a whole this is a boisterous, bold, and layered production that pushed the boundaries. There were times where the play needed different directing and acting choices than this production was offering. I was dying for this production to be more campy through its costumes and reined in while subtly aware of its humor and wit through character depictions, but it lands somewhere between comedy and drama but sometimes doesn’t quite hit the mark in either category. 

It’s clear that the audience is supposed to dislike and laugh at Mozart’s sheer vulgarity and foolishness, but due to how Mozart was portrayed I found myself deeply uncomfortable and I felt an overwhelming amount of claustrophobia unlike I’ve ever felt as an audience member before while Mozart was a principal player in scenes. While I understood what the text was supposed to convey, due to the performance and directional choices of portraying Mozart as out of control, this interpretation of Mozart missed the mark for me. I wish there could have been more dichotomy in Brian McElroy’s interpretation; I would have liked to see a depiction of Mozart as a true flop, fool, and out-of-touch member of society in social interactions followed by sheer genius while he was acting as a composer. It would have made more of an impact during the dramatic scenes with Salieri’s introspections. Tyler’s Gastelum’s portrayal of Antonio Salieri was clear, witty and well-rounded, though I sometimes found that I had trouble taking his dramatic moments seriously. This may have had less to do with Gustelum’s portrayal, and more to do with how the interpretation of Mozart was executed in this production, which affected the impact of Gustelum’s dramatic moments and monologues . Gastelum delivers more monologues in this production than I could count and I have to emphasize, this is no easy task as a performer. While I found Gastelum’s portrayal of Salieri to be well executed, I found the sheer amount of monologues to be fatiguing to watch as an audience member. I fault the format of the play for this. This production is held in an intimate theatre but many of the leading performers played to the house like it was a proscenium, which again caused some claustrophobia for me as an audience member which was unfortunate and could have been an easy fix. 

The lighting design by Alex J. Alegria and sound design by Erin Amsler really suited the production and acted as additional characters in the play. These technical elements were refined and suited the small space well. The supporting characters really knocked it out of the park and shined in this production. They were the glue that held this production together. They were all a treat to watch and brought a levity which was refreshing and fun. Steve Waite plays Count Johann Kilian von Strack and his performance is subtle and witty. Stephen Dunham is perfectly campy and funny as the Emperor Joseph II. Tony Caprile as the Baron Gottfried van Swieten was perfectly cast and equally funny. Michael Levin as Count Franz Orsini-Rosenberg is witty and a master of the side-eye. Abigail Dunscomb and Hayden Issac Stagg as the Venticellos suited their roles and had great side by side chemistry. The breakout star in my eyes was definitely Zuleyl Castro as Constanze Weber. She was both funny and tragic in her portrayal, and I hope to see more of her on many Tucson stages.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about the production, however there were a great many elements that I found enjoyable. I hope audiences see this production and judge for themselves. I can’t say enough how important it is to support your local theatre company. Local theatre is the perfect setting for experimentation and pushing the boundaries, and without a doubt this production does just that.

Amadeus plays through March 3rd at The Temple of Music and Art 330 s Scott Ave. Student tickets are available for $20 and adult tickets are available for $25. Tickets are available at http://www.windingroadtheater.org

*Disclosure by the Author: The Author would like the reader to know that they have worked with Winding Road Theatre Ensemble in past seasons.