Actor Andrew McFarlane is best known by Boomers as ‘Australia’s best loved son’ as John Sullivan in the ‘70s classic television series The Sullivans and by babies as a Playschool presenter.
Younger generations will have grown up with him in Neighbours, Home and Away, Water Rats, All Saints, Murder Call, Heartbreak High, Flying Doctors, Rafferty’s Rules and Patrol Boat (in fact, is there an Australian television drama that McFarlane hasn’t been in?).
His most recent notable portrayal was of Donald Mackay in Underbelly: Tale of Two Cities, and his film and theatre credits are as long as your arm. McFarlane has been around the block—and back again.
His 2007 performance as the beleaguered George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? brought him acclaim, and no doubt his current theatrical foray in English author Paul Shaffer’s masterpiece Amadeus will reap similar praise.
Shaffer’s Amadeus has been described as a wickedly funny, dark fantasy about music, genius, jealousy, madness and murder. Its appeal will run broader than opera buffs, although the score will set operatic hearts racing.
Amadeus won a ‘Best Play’ Tony Award in 1981 and was popularised by a film adaptation in 1984, which won 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture.
Set amidst the opulence and splendour of 18th century Vienna, Amadeus tells of the bitter jealousy of the Italian court composer Antonio Salieri towards the brilliantly talented up-and-coming Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who has just settled in Vienna to seek his fortune.
Salieri sees the young Mozart as a serious rival to his position and sets about plotting his downfall. He resorts to trickery, deceit and lies and through a campaign of suppression, brings Mozart to a state of poverty and ill health. Mozart dies and Salieri is haunted by his own conscience, claiming to have murdered Mozart. Salieri’s torture doesn’t end there—but you’ll have to see the play to find out.
“Shaffer used the conflict between the Old Guard and the new whirlwind of energy to vitalise his play”, says McFarlane.
“It is operatic, which reflects the battle between the Boy Genius and the mediocre Salieri who, despite being reverent to his craft, will never be more than pedestrian in his composing”, he says. “He recognises the genius of Mozart and is incensed by the young man’s complete disregard for his God-given gift”.
The themes in Shaffer’s script are palatable for today’s audiences.
“If Mozart were to be incarnated in this day and age, he would be likened to a rock star, with all the consequent bad behaviour that can bring. He certainly set a cat amongst the pigeons amongst the 18th Century court.”
McFarlane will be joined by Steven Tandy and a supporting cast of some of Queensland’s most impressive talent, including rising actor Dash Kruck as Mozart, and Kerith Atkinson as his long-suffering wife Constanze. It is directed by Sydney-based Tama Matheson, who is currently working with Gail Edwards on Manon Lescaut for Opera Australia.
McFarlane says he jumped at the Salieri role.
“My most recent work was playing a Noosa property developer in a David Williamson play, so it was quite a leap to this huge, grand, complex, drama. But it’s the kind of thing that actors jump at because we all like challenges and to be pushed into areas we can explore”, he says.
McFarlane is well aware of the gravity of playing such a monumental role. The American actor F. Murray Abraham won an Oscar for his turn in the film version.
“There’s no doubt that this kind of role draws attention. That can frighten an actor off because if it has been done well by someone else, that [performance] can be stamped on the public psyche. But no one shies away from playing Hamlet, and I think it’s the role that stays alive, not the particular performer’s interpretation of it.”
WHAT: Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus
WHERE: Playhouse, Canberra
WHEN: 8th & 9th September at 7.45pm
TICKETS: $50.00, Concs $43.00
BOOKINGS: 62752700
WARNING: This show contains obscene language
