Kelly Colleen McMahon presents Amadeus by Peter Shaffer
Wednesday 11 January to Saturday 14 January 2006
St. Nicholas Collegiate Church, Galway, 8 pm
Tickets: €15 Members of Music for Galway: €10
Booking: 087-2719782
This January, the world will celebrate Mozart´s 250th Birthday. To correspond with the festivities, Kelly Colleen McMahon will present Peter Shaffer´s take on the legendary composer, Amadeus, at St. Nicholas Collegiate Church January 11-14.
The work looks at Mozart´s time in Vienna (i.e. the last ten years of his life) but does so through the lens of his rival and purported murderer, Antonio Salieri. An enduring myth implicates Salieri in Mozart´s early death and Shaffer plays with the evolution of these kinds of rumours. He also examines ideas about religious piety, envy, facades, and the inscrutability of destiny. All of this while creating a fascinating portrait of the composer and his would-be nemesis.
Most people are undoubtedly more familiar with the film adaptation of the play, which garnered numerous Oscar and Golden Globe awards when it was released in 1984. The stage production is equally as laurelled with the Broadway production earning Tony´s including Best Play for Shaffer and Best Actor for Ian McKellen who played Salieri. Though stage and screen version share characters and basic plot details, the theatrical original centres much more on the idea of Mozart (whose middle name means ‘beloved of God´) as God´s voice on Earth and the blend of admiration and ire this cause in Salieri. This religious undercurrent makes St. Nicholas an ideal venue for the play as the church´s holy atmosphere will augment those themes quite palpably.
The cast for the Galway production includes actors from a range of theatrical organizations in the city including Galway Youth Theatre, An Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe, NUIG´s MA in Drama and Theatre Studies and NUIG DramSoc. In the principle roles are Patrick Curley as Antonio Salieri, Morgan Cooke as his bane and the title character and Helen Gregg the composer´s devoted wife, Constanze.
Cast
Antonio Salieri – Patrick Curley
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Morgan Cooke
Constanze Weber – Helen Gregg
Emperor Joseph II – Ronan McMahon
Count Von Strack – Matt Kelly
Count Orsini-Rosenberg – Shane McDermott
Baron Van Swieten – Martin Sullivan
Venticelli – Aileen Bradley, Lisa Daly
Directed by Kelly Colleen McMahon
Music for Galway
c/o GMIT
Cluain Mhuire
Monivea Road
Galway
phone: ++353 91 705962 email:Â info@nullmusicforgalway.ie
www.musicforgalway.ie
