grondfic

We'd hardly returned from an extended Easter in Vienna before we were off again with the theatre-visits.

Amadeus (National)

We came a bit late to this party; as this revival of Peter Schaffer's play has been around (and livestreamed) since 2016.

It's a marvellous extravaganza, with a full cast of actors (some of whom are also opera-singers) and complete small orchestra (the Southbank Sinfonia).

Lucian Msamati makes a marvellous Salieri, expertly guiding us through the Viennese court of Emperor Josef II, whilst simultaneously revealing more and more about himself, and the driving forces in his life - his God, his music and - progressively - his obsession with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In fact all three forces are intertwined, as the hapless Mozart (all unknowingly) becomes the focus of Salieri's 'feud' with his God, Whom he cannot forgive for (a) allotting him only a limited musical talent and (b) pouring His divine genius into the infantile, awkward, gauche Mozart.

Acting honours are similarly divided; whilst Msamati's Salieri grounds the show, it's Adam Gillen's Mozart who steals the charisma. But - really - the star of the whole thing is the music. We loved it.

Pressure (Park Theatre)

I was first aware of David Haig in 1990, when he played Harold Nicolson in Portrait of a Marriage; but I must also have seen him way back in 1978 playing the villain in children's series The Moon Stallion. He's that kind of actor - one you've seen loads of times on the box, and you know his face without putting a name to it. After his self-penned tv play My Boy Jack, when he played Rudyard Kipling, I had him tabbed; and was pleased to see him onstage in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead last year, stealing the show from Daniel Radcliffe as The Player.

Now, he has written Pressure, starring in his own work with great success at the Park. It concerns something very dear to British hearts - The Weather; also something even more popular - World War II and the D-Day landings. Moreover it deals with a plucky, cantankerous, eccentric Brit proving himself more knowledgeable than a brash, arrogant American. Plus it's based on RL.

In other words, it can't fail (this side of the Pond anyway)!

Haig takes the lead role as the peremptory Group Captain James Stagg, a meteorologist seconded to the Allied HQ in Portsmouth, where General ('Ike') Eisenhower is at the final point of planning the seaborne invasion of France. All he needs to know now, is whether they'll have a fine day for it.

Unfortunately the Americans have their own tame meteorologist - Colonel Irving P Krick - who is well-known for predicting good weather for Hollywood film-shoots (played with appropriate bombast by Philip Cairns). Stagg, however, is wise to the jet-stream, and predicts a massive storm on the chosen day (this is Britain - NATURALLY it rains on any given chosen-day!)

Eventually, of course, the General listens to the right man; and D-Day goes ahead as planned (only a day later, when 'a window' appears as the storm slows down).

In the meantime, there's a subplot. Kay Summersby (played by Laura Rogers in the only female speaking-role in the play) appears to be the whole HQ's go-to mother-figure. She's also Ike's chauffeur/secretary; and there's more than a suggestion of tender feelings between the pair. Ike (played with wonderful panache and authority by Malcolm Sinclair) is by turns peremptory, down-home, receptive of new ideas, empathetic and (in the play's final moments) coldly-formal.

Both these actors bid fair to steal the show from Haig; but he (as playwright as well as lead) is able to present a rounded view of the initially-unlikeable Stagg.

The play is about to transfer to the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End (on the anniversary of D-Day no less); and proposals for a film-version have been put forward.

Success, as I say, is assured.

Coming this week:
The Moderate Soprano (Duke of York's) starring Roger ('Inspector Fred Thursday') Allam and Nancy ('Lady Felicia') Carroll;
Hamlet (wot, AGAIN?) at the Globe, produced by a director-less emsemble and starring (surprise!) the newly-appointed Creative Director Michelle Terry as the Prince.