PicksInSix Review: Amadeus - Steppenwolf Theatre Company

‘Amadeus’: God Works In Strange Ways.
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (David Darrow), the impetuous, child prodigy of Peter Shaffer’s brilliant play “Amadeus,” bestowed with a supernatural ability to visualize music far more complex than his contemporaries, is undermined by an envious and influential Vienna court rival Antonio Salieri (Ian Barford) who recognizes the youthful threat and prays to God that he himself would be blessed with that same celestial talent. Salieri’s punishment, in the scintillating Robert Falls directed Steppenwolf production that opened Sunday, is to live a very public 30-year long career of mediocrity, cursed all the while by the now long deceased Mozart’s flourishing legacy and immortality.

It is at this critical juncture of reckoning that Shaffer’s fictionalized version of events begins, with Salieri, as narrator, delusional and near death, praying to be absolved for his deceptive and underhanded role in driving Mozart into an early grave.  Over the course of the play, we discover the origin of the relationship and learn that if spirituality had any impact on the situation, it would be to Mozart’s benefit to seek some assistance for himself, but he is too self-absorbed. The wunderkind faces a painful decline as commission fees are diminished, students go elsewhere and a prestigious court appointment passes him by.

In the deeply layered role of Salieri, Barford explores a wide range of emotions from beleaguered hack to ruthless villain. He is initially entranced by Mozart’s music, then appalled when, in a moment, Mozart transforms his own lifeless march into a breathtaking aria and then is overcome with rage when he realizes that he will never achieve an ounce of the extraordinary success that Mozart displays in virtually every project he undertakes.

As Mozart, Darrow is a captivating personality, absorbing early scenes with boyish, frenzied enthusiasm, frolicking with his fiancé Contanze Weber (a poised and elegant performance by Jaye Ladymore) and cleverly taunting the conservative members of the court who regard his demeanor as disrespectful and revolting. If there is a clear turning point for Mozart, it occurs when he accepts Salieri into his trust offering no possible recovery. With Mozart’s demise complete, Salieri has won a fruitless victory fraught with guilt and regret.

In supporting roles, John Lister (Count Orsini-Rosenberg), Robert Breuler (Kapellmeiter Bonno), Yasen Peyankov (Baron Van Sweiten) and Gregory Linington (Joseph II) all stand out in the matchless ensemble. The two Venticellos, played exquisitely by Ora Jones and Sawyer Smith, breeze in and around the action as Salieri’s confidants and conscience, moving more than the story along.

Scenically, Todd Rosenthal creates a versatile atmosphere which enables seamless transformations from scene to scene, framed in an impressive, if representatively imperfect, glass valance with an opulent period ceiling fresco and twin chandeliers. The ensemble transforms this elegant backdrop to opulence with an impressive series of Amanda Gladu’s stunning costumes that envelope the stage with color, texture and movement under Falls’ artful direction. “Amadeus” is sure to be one of the season’s most heralded works on stage in Chicago and has already been extended deep into January.

PHOTO | Michael Brosilow

Steppenwolf Theatre Company
presents
Amadeus
1650 N. Halsted St.
EXTENDED through January 25, 2026

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PicksInSix Review: Translations - Writers Theatre

‘Translations’—The Magic of Language Itself.
PicksInSix® Review | Ronald Keaton

It would be very easy to see “Translations,” the thick, challenging classic by the great Irish playwright Brian Friel, as a treatise about endless attacks on Irish colonialism.  After all, British soldiers travel from town to town and literally change the names of where people live to make them conform with English culture and language—by force, if necessary. And in many ways, this is true. But, as the elegant production at Writers Theatre in Glencoe that opened Friday shows in no uncertain terms, the real story here is about the magic of language itself. Writers Artistic Director Braden Abraham has deftly followed the brushstrokes of the master Mr. Friel in creating this entire world of contradiction and mystery.

This was a period—Ireland in the 1830s, a delicate time historically, if such a word can be used for the Irish—that sat roughly a decade out from the vaunted potato famine, which would kill more than a million people and uprooted many more by some estimates. In order to create a seeming conformity in the Isles, these British soldiers helped establish the first National Schools, which encouraged literacy but provided classes only in English, and thus prohibited the speaking of Irish/Gaelic, which greatly contributed to its decline. This battle focuses on three characters— Hugh, a highly regarded teacher who speaks fluent Greek and Latin; his son Owen, who becomes a kind of interpreter for the soldiers, while caught between them and his love for his native land; and Yolland, a soldier who also maps the countryside and eventually falls for a young lass, rendering him, well, a bit lost in translation himself.

Hugh (the marvelous, rock-solid Kevin Gudahl) teaches adults in this hedge-school, which was illegal and furtive in its existence because of the Anglican stance on who should know what. One easily imagines a kind of drunken philosopher here, as Hugh imparts what wisdom and history he can in eloquent phrases and between lifts of his flask. He believes that the world is affected not by the facts of history, but by how we view those facts—an outlook not totally lost on our world today. But he’s practical as well; he sees with disdain what’s ahead in the coming loss of his own tongue.

His son Owen (Casey Hoekstra as an appealing spirit of not-so-torn allegiance) is a knowledgeable, almost gifted translator between English and Irish, taking to his task with a fervor that rivals the soldiers themselves in its passion. Owen drives the play forward with that fervency and commitment. His brother Manus (Andrew Mueller, persuasively gentler in outlook and demeanor than Owen) attempts to hold down the linguistic fort in wanting to preserve all native language and education, all while remaining in his father’s shadow. Mr. Mueller’s departure from Ballybeg at the top of Act II is absolutely riveting.

There really is all manner of great character work here, a Writers Theatre stamp. Jimmy Jack (a fabulous turn by Jonathan Weir) is a wizened old soul of letters who regularly waxes poetic about his admiration for the gods and goddesses of mythology, often in Greek or Latin. The lovers Lieutenant Yolland (a deeply affected young soldier given wonderful and painful shrift by Eric Hellman) and the comely girl Maire (Tyler Meredith is lovely and quite effective) have the ultimate hill to climb; they cannot communicate on a practical level, because they literally speak different languages. Yet a love emerges. And this plays out achingly, thanks to a chilling moment that Ms. Meredith handles with aplomb.

The almost elfin mute Sarah (Julia Rowley, convincing in an extremely difficult role) finds it hard to even articulate her own name. Gregory Linington valiantly takes on his Captain Lancey, who could have been a thankless taskmaster were it not for the actor’s inherent skill. Doalty (Ian Maryfield) and Bridget (Chloe Baldwin) are both young adult students at Hugh’s school.  They have a constantly energetic and fun exchange whenever they appear. And all this is contained on a set that seems a combination classroom/apartment/lean-to ingeniously offered by Andrew Boyce. The always right Andre Pleuss gives the audience a sound scheme of economy and thought. The dialect work of the cast was stellar; dialect coach Eva Breneman earns kudos here, too. And always Mr. Friel, watching like a voice in one’s ear, making sure that the attempt to change the world through its languages gets a full and proper examination. So graceful, and so telling, in the results.

RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com  Coming soon, his new solo play “Echo Holler.” www.echoholler.com

PHOTO | Michael Brosilow

Writers Theater
presents
Translations
325 Tudor Court
Glencoe, IL
through May 4

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